Podcasts about second samuel

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. TranscriptGood morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. So we, as I said last week, we are taking a break. We just finished up First Samuel and we are not going to jump straight into Second Samuel. We're going to do that in the new year. We're going to do a series called re member series called Remember. We'll do that through the fall and then we'll do give series and we'll come back to Second Samuel. We're excited about this series. This is an opportunity for us to revisit and remember what it means to be a member of this church. See how clever we are with titles, you guys. There you go. One clap. It's an opportunity for us to revisit what it means to be a member of this church. So we're going to over the next few months walk through our membership commitments and revisit the things that bind us together as beliefs and practices. And then if you are a member of this church, we'll have the opportunity this fall to actually recommit to membership. We're excited about that and we're going to have more information about that at our upcoming family meeting. So make sure that you are there if you're a committed member of our church, to be at family meeting. But we're thankful that we get to walk through this over the next couple months. These 14 different membership commitments that we have before we jump into those commitments today, I want to look at the why and the what of membership. We need to look at the why and the what of membership before we jump into what we actually commit to as a church. Because some folks will pose the question, why membership in the first place? Why do you have membership? Why belong to a church? Some people ask, is church membership even biblical? Like, where do you get this idea? So we're going to examine that idea while also being clear about what it means to be a member of this church. Like what is our membership commitment all about? And there's some language that we use that is going to sound very familiar, that if you ask what does it mean to be a member of of Mill City Church of Cayce, There's a phrase that will show up as we walk through this today. I know it's going to blow your mind like you've never heard it before. But we are a gospel centered community on mission. It's the language we use over and over again. I'm pretty sure it's on the wall somewhere in the lobby. But there's a reason we are that and there is a Reason why that really defines who we are as a church. And we're going to see that as we walk through why membership, but also what it means to be a member of this church. So I want to pray for us and then we will walk through this together.Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us have ears to hear this morning. I pray that you might help us see why it is good to belong, why it is good to commit to following you, to delighting in you, to loving one another, to being obedient, to take the gospel to our city. God, I pray you'd help us be present and we'd be not just hearers of the Word, but we would be doers of the Word. As we trust you, we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.All right, so why do we practice church membership? Someone will ask, where in the Bible do you find the command to be a member of a local church? Now, this may come as a shock to some of you, but you're not going to find any one verse in the Bible that commands for you to be a part of a church through church membership. There's no Third Corinthians that shows up and says, and be a member of a local church and submit to the elders of that local church. There's not any one verse that really makes this crystal clear, which is if there was, it might make the conversation about membership a little bit easier over the years as we've had it. But what you will see is as you look through the Scriptures, you'll see that God is doing something in setting up his church. And that's what I want to do. For the first part in answering why membership? I want to do what's I want to do a biblical theology of church membership, which is going from the Old Testament to the New Testament to see how God is developing this people that is going to belong to him, with him at the center to declare His Excellencies to a lost world. So that's what I want to do, starting off in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis. So God chooses in the Book of Genesis, Abraham that he's going to form a people through. He promises Abraham he's going to have a great nation that's made through him. And in this selection of Abraham, we see that God is going to have a unique, special relationship with him and his people, unlike the rest of humanity. And there's this promise of this great nation, this great people that he's going to bless the nations through. And then when you get to the next Book of The Bible, the second book, the book of Exodus. You see that God takes his descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel who have been slaves in Egypt. He brings them out of Egypt. And when they're wandering in the wilderness in Exodus 19, you see really the formation and the formal covenant relationship that God establishes with his people. And in Exodus 19 he tells his people in verse 5,> Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.These are the words he shall speak to the people of Israel. Then he tells them that you are my treasured possession. And as this is going to play out, he's going to take this people, his treasured possession to the promised land. He's going to set himself up in the center of his people to be a God centered people that are uniquely his, unlike any other aspect of creation, unlike any other people. And that this people is going to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This people was meant to be separate from the nations that look different, that proclaim the excellencies of God as a light to the surrounding nations. And then this is Exodus 19, right before Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. When he gets the Ten Commandments, you see the first four commandments and the Ten Commandments are God centered commandments. This is how to have right relationship with God and worshiping God alone. And then the next six are how to live in good community with one another, how to love one another, how to trust one another, don't lie, don't murder, don't steal. And then the rest of the Old Testament law is really expounding upon those 10 Commandments. It's helping them see in their context, in their time, this is what it means to be a people who has God at the center, who loves one another fiercely in a community that takes care of one another, that looks separate from the nations, that declares how good our God is. And when you read the rest of the Old Testament, you see a people that most of the time falls on their face in trying to live that out, that over and over again. They don't put God at the center, they worship other gods, they don't love each other, they don't serve each other, they take advantage of one another. And instead of looking separate than the nations in order to show how good their God is, they look just like the nations. And that is the reason that they need a Savior and there's this hope from the prophets proclaiming this Savior is going to come. And then Jesus comes.Flip to the New Testament. When Jesus comes, he begins to develop this with new and better language. You see, if you just take the Gospel of Matthew, just start there. When you start reading the Gospel of Matthew, you're going to see what God is doing. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus begins His ministry by preaching the gospel, proclaiming the gospel of his kingdom that is coming, and declaring the good news. And then he also chooses a people. He chooses the 12 disciples, these disciples whom he's going to build his church through. He begins teaching them. You keep flipping. Go to Matthew chapter five through Matthew chapter seven. You read the Sermon on the Mount. This is a retelling of the law and new and really better language, showing the heart of God all along for his people. What it looks like to put God at the center, what it looks like to take sin seriously, to live in community. We see some of this and more teaching, more of his ministry. When you get to Matthew chapter 11, you see that he commissions out his disciples. He puts them on a mission trip to begin to declare the good news of the Gospel to the people in the surrounding areas. You keep reading the Gospel of Matthew, you see more teaching, you see more of his work and his ministry. And then you get to Matthew chapter 18. And then Jesus begins to use a word to describe what this people is going to be, that he's making this new covenant people, and that is the church. The Greek word for that is ekklesia. It means church or assembly. And it shows up in Matthew 18. And Jesus begins to describe what this church is going to look like. It's going to be a people who take sin seriously, who hold each other accountable, who practice radical forgiveness. That is unlike the rest of the world. Jesus continues to teach. He continues to form his people. He continues to disciple his disciples. And then it is time for him to do the work that no one can do. He does the work of salvation. He takes his perfect record of righteousness with him to the cross. He dies on the cross for our sins because we were unable to to obey the law. He dies on the cross, taking judgment upon himself. He conquers death at the resurrection, removing the power of death over his people. And then he looks at his disciples at the end of Matthew and he tells them,> Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.He tells them, you're going to take everything that you've learned from me over the last three years. This message of the gospel that I came to redeem you and save you. This message of what it looks like to be a people that are committed to having God at the center and loving one another. Well, you're going to take that to the nations where they're going to hear the gospel and believe and you can read Mark and Luke and John and you're going to see this story over and over again. Then you get the book of Acts where Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father being king over all creation. And then the Holy Spirit descends upon his people and the church begins in Acts 2. You read that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit stands up, preaches the first sermon at Pentecost and 3,000 people, people place plus people place their faith in Jesus and are baptized. And then we see some of the very first acts of this church and responding to Christ in faith and baptism. It says in verse 42. We'll have more time to study this exact passage in community group this week. I just want to hit some of the highlights to help us see what God is doing here. In verse 42 he says,> And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.That's the teachings of Christ. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. They were a gospel centered people. And it continues into the fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. You go to verse 44.> And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.That they were a people that believed the gospel, devoted themselves to that teaching, but they devoted themselves to one another. They fellowshiped together, they broke bread together, they took care of each other's needs. They saw their brothers and sisters in Christ as more important than money and material things. And they're selling their stuff so that they can take care of one another. And then it goes in verse 47 and finishes.> And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.That this message continues to be introduced to people who hear and believe and are brought into the church to continue to be a gospel centered community on mission to take the gospel to the world that desperately needed it. The church in Jerusalem continues to expand as you follow the story. Keep flipping through Acts. All of a sudden God has a plan to see scatter his people and involves the death of one of his servants, Stephen. He ordains the death of Stephen who's proclaiming the Good news of Jesus Christ and he's murdered for it. And in Acts chapter eight, after he's martyred, it says, and Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And now we see that the plan is spreading, that it's not just a church in Jerusalem now, it's in Judea and it's in Samaria. And the church is going global. One of the ways this has been described is that the church globally is the big sea church in creeds. That's called the Catholic Church. It's not referring to the Catholic denomination, but the Catholic meaning universal. That there's this global, universal church bound together by Christ. But it's not just in Jerusalem, it's in Judea, it's in Samaria. It's scattered in communities across the world in local churches. That's usually called the little C church. But there are little C churches who are forming together with Christ at the center, seeking to be what God has called them. Now the church is spreading past Jerusalem. And then that man who was involved in the killing of Stephen Saul in Acts chapter nine is on his way to persecute more Christians. And then Jesus blinds him, converts him. And then we know him mostly as Paul. And then Paul is set apart to take this even further. And he plants churches all over Asia Minor, all over Europe. And the church begins to spread and expand. As you continue to read the Book of Acts, you see the gospel spreading all over that region. But as these churches are getting established and they're seeking to be a gospel centered people that are taking the gospel to the nations as they're seeking to be this, they start to run into problems. They start to run into different things, different sins, different struggles. There's a bunch of people who the thing that the. The central binding idea that holds them together is Christ. But they're very, very different. Different ethnicities, different cultures, different classes. And as you continue to read the rest of the New Testament, you see that God had a plan for this, that he starts to write letters, inspired scripture through servants like Paul to these churches to help them see what it means to be a gospel centered people. How to fight for what is good, how to repent of sin, how to live in community, how to still have some missional hustle to take the gospel to the nations. But when you read the beginnings of these letters, you see very clearly that these are individual churches. I'll run through a Bunch of them. Really quickly. The letter to the Corinthians, in First Corinthians, Chapter one, it says, to the church of God that is in Corinth, that is that church in that city with their unique issues. This is a letter to that church. Not all the churches, though all the churches, will eventually benefit from this, helping us see now it's not just one global church. There's individual churches where these people belong to one another and have their own leaders and their own issues they're facing. It continues to the churches of Galatia, that's a whole region of different churches that Paul planted in his first missionary journey. To the saints who are in Ephesus, that's the book of Ephesians. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, that's the book of Philippians. To the church of Thessalonians and God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the church in Thessalonica. You start to see that there is one global church made up of individuals, communities of Christians who are seeking to be centered in Christ, loving one another fiercely and taking the Gospel to their friends and their neighbors. And you follow that thread all the way through the letters and you'll get to the end. The Book of Revelation, which we did last year. And as we saw the Book of Revelation, it's not just apocalyptic literature. It's not just proclaiming what's going to happen. It is also a letter written to seven churches. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and as we saw last year, all churches with different problems, with different sins, some needing encouragement, all of them mostly needing a smack across the face from Jesus. But those are all individual churches where those people belong to Christ and. And one another seeking to be obedient in following him and taking the Gospel to those who needed it. So that's Genesis to Revelation. While you're not going to find one specific verse that makes this so clear, what you can see from start to finish is that God had a plan to form a people. And that plan was to be localized in churches where there were people that were so deeply committed to following Christ and having a zeal and a desire to worship and delight in him over all things, to be a people, a community that so deeply loved one another and cared for one another, that looked radically different than the rest of the world. So much so that historians at the time were looking at these Christians and saying there's something different about them. And to be a people who are not so self focused that they were going to use their energy and their effort and their time and their money and their lives lives to proclaim the good news to those who didn't know. That is God's plan for redemption. One global church working through individual local churches all around the world. That is God's plan for the church. So when someone says I don't see membership in the Bible, I just want to say it's, you got to read the whole story. You need to see what God is doing. You need to see God's plan for redemption that is through the local church.I was talking to a pastor a few weeks back and he was telling me a story about a guy who had been coming to their church and he said, did this guy come? And he was kind of coming for weeks and they started to introduce the idea, maybe you should think about committing here. And he said, oh no, I don't believe membership is biblical. He's like, I'm a part of the big C church, we're all a part of the same church, but I'm not going to commit to membership here. And he was kind of taken aback and he engaged with the conversation. He said, okay, take what you're saying, so you're a member of the big sea, the, the big church universal. He said, yeah. He said, okay, well am I like a pastor in this big old church in the world? And he said, yeah. He said okay, so does it make me like your pastor? He said, yeah. He said, alright, let me share with you Hebrews chapter 13. He said,> Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.He said, do you believe that's true? He said, yeah. He said, okay, so if I'm your pastor and you're gonna submit to me, you should go through the membership process at our church. He just laid it out for him and the guy said no and he left and he never came back. And I thought that was quite the clever way to be able to explain and poke holes in the guy's argument. But that passage is incredibly helpful. You read the New Testament letters and you see that God has structured for these local communities that he has pastors, elders that are overseeing the church. So when I look at that passage, obey your leaders and submit to them. It's helpful for me when I'm talking to people about membership. It's like, I belong to this church, I'M one of the pastors of this church. I belong to them, they belong to me. My people aren't down the road. They're the brothers and sisters. They're not across town, they're not across the world. I don't pastor them, I don't oversee their souls. I don't answer for their souls. No, it's this people. And you see that God has a plan and even the oversight of his church. And I think this is important, especially in Southern culture. And here's why. In Southern culture, pretty much still everyone, if you ask them, are you a Christian? They're gonna say, yeah. The overwhelming majority of people in the south are still gonna say, yeah, I'm a Christian. And if you begin to press into that, a lot of times it's, well, I'm Methodist or I'm Presbyterian or Episcopalian, or I'm Baptist or I'm Catholic. And it's like, what does that mean? I was just born Christian, I was born a Methodist. And as you look at the scriptures, you're not born a Christian. And if you continue to press into this, what you also see is there are a lot of people that claim the name of Christ that don't really belong anywhere. They don't commit to any people, don't commit to the Lord locally anywhere. They're just free floating in a way that is so foreign to the scriptures. And then what you'll also see is you'll see people that go, yeah, I mean, I don't really, not really. I don't really, I'm not a member anywhere. I, I like this church for the worship. I like this church for the teaching. I like this church for their Bible studies, like this church for their small groups. I like this church for their outreach. And I kind of just, you know, take everywhere like it's a buffet. And it's like, man, to make the church of Jesus Christ for your own benefit is so foreign to what the scriptures teach about the church that is not the church that Jesus bled and died for. You should be committed to God and his people somewhere. And my hope is that as you look at the grand story, you'll see, yes, you should belong. You should be a member of a church somewhere. Christians are not designed to be outside of the church or just not. And over the next couple months, I hope we continue to see that over and over again as we walk through this.Now that's the why of why we should belong to a church. Now I just want to, as we end look at the what, what does it mean to belong to this church? And it's gonna sound like a broken record, but it's a good one. It's a record we spend every Sunday. It's what Chet Phillips calls the bee's knees of belonging, which I don't know why he calls it that, but it's really important to us. And that is being a gospel centered community on mission. And that's what you're going to see over the next two months. Walking through this, you're going to see 14 different commitments that highlight that. So let's start with that first part. What does it mean to be gospel centered? It means that we are a church that is bound together by. By one shared story. And that story is the message of the gospel. We are bound together by this one shared story in a way that not just defines us at the beginning in belief, but defines us in belief and practice the rest of our lives. If you look at the American story, okay, if you look at the American story at the beginning, you see that it's a group of people that are anti tyranny. Okay? No taxation without representation. No king's going to tell us what to do. You'll see that it's a people that love freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of speech. Don't step on my freedoms. You'll see that it's a people that have some hustle, some dogged determination to exist. That's how America began. But that's also the story that permeates through its people throughout time, that even today, Americans don't like kings. Don't tell me what I can and cannot do. We like freedom and there's still some dogged determination to exist. That's the American spirit and it still flows through its people. And we as Christians have a much better story. We as Christians have a much better story. That's not just our origin story, but it permeates through us in our lives. It is the story of Jesus Christ. It is the story of a God who looked on humanity, that rejected him, that spit upon his goodwill, that decided that they wanted to worship what they wanted to worship and find what they thought fulfilling and rejected him over and over again. And God and His mercy does not give us judgment. He sends His Son that Christ comes and he dies on the cross for sinners. And he conquers death at the resurrection. And he gives us grace that we don't deserve to be in relationship with Him. And he forms us more into his image through his work, through his will and desire and good pleasure and that story continues to work within his people. It is the story that saves us, but it's the story that sustains us. In the same way that as foreigners come to America and they become American citizens and in a lot of ways embody the American spirit in beautiful ways, they start loving freedom. They start. They have this dogged determination within them. We do not belong to this world as Christians. Scriptures say that we have. Our citizenship is in heaven. From we have with a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are part of the world that is to come. And as citizens of that kingdom here on this earth, as sojourners and strangers and foreigners, that we embody what it means to belong to him more than anything else. So what we'll see over the next coming weeks as we walk through these commitments, we'll see what it means to be a gospel centered people bound together by that story. But we will also see what it means to be a community. What it means to be a gospel centered community. One of the metaphors that we see in the New Testament for the church, for the this community is the body. So Romans 12, we'll talk about one body, many members. So one body, different body parts, different members of the body in a way that each person is doing their gift to be able to serve one another well. And man, when you see that actually in practice, when you experience what it means to belong to the church of Jesus Christ and have different members of the body who, who love and serve you, it is a glorious story. I mean, if you ever see someone who loses their job, which is a massive loss, and they're crushed, and then someone in their group finds out, and all of a sudden their whole group is messaging them saying, hey, we love you, like we're praying for you. You need to know that your identity is not in the work that you do. Your identity is in the God who loves you, who sustains you. God's going to provide for you. He's going to take care of you, we're going to take care of you. But you need to remember the gospel. And then all of a sudden, they're behind the scenes organizing things. By the time he gets home, there's already been a meal delivered and there's meals to be delivered the next few days. All of a sudden someone else in the church hears about this and they put $1,000 in an envelope and drop it on the doorstep. And all of a sudden he's being provided for, his family's being loved. And then more people in the church find out all of A sudden they ask, can we be praying about this? That you would find a new job that ends up in our prayer message that goes out to our members. Now the whole church is praying and then someone else in the church hears about that and says, wait a second, I know what he does for a living. I got a friend who's hiring for that position right now. They reach out and say, hey, hey, can you talk to this, Talk to my friend. He's hiring. And then within a week, he's already got a job lined up. When you see the church respond like that over and over and over and over again, it makes me so thankful for the church of Jesus Christ and how his church responds over and over again. We've seen this over and over again in our church and it's wonderful. And I wish in some ways more of those stories were told. I know why we don't. Because we don't let the left hand know what the right is doing. I get that. But the stories that go viral are the church hurt stories. And yes, those stories exist. They're real stories with real pain. I'm not denying the existence of them. But boy, oh boy, the amount of church help stories where people rally around one another, it's like 100 to 1 to 1 compared to that. The church is a wonderful people to belong to, to see them in action over and over and over again because they're centered in Christ in a way that helps us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, see something beyond our own interest. And when you see it in action, it's beautiful. It's a family. And that's the language of the New Testament. Often when it talks about the church and is family. When you start learning New Testament Greek, one of the first, you start with the vocabulary words that are the most, most used in the New Testament. And one of the first words you learn in Greek is adelphoi, it's the word for brothers and sisters. Because it shows up over and over and over again in the scriptures to talk about God's people, that we are a family, that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul, when he's making converts, talks about his converts like spiritual children. That we are a family, that we love one another, that we belong to one another. And when you study the Book of Acts, you see this. The church functions like a family. I was trying to explain this to someone recently. I was trying to explain this concept and I was just saying, listen, I'm close with my earthly family. I'm close with my parents, my brothers, and my sisters, like we are, we're close, but boy, oh boy, there's some eternal depth that I have with brothers and sisters in this church that when crap hits the fan in my life, the first few messages are not to family. And that's not to lower my earthly family. I'm real close with them. It's to elevate what the importance of church family is here. And when it hits the fan, I'm messaging people in this church and I got people in this church who rally around in wonderful ways. To belong to a family that fiercely loves God and one another is beautiful, it's compelling, it's wonderful. It is so good to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. And as you walk through the membership commitment with us over the next couple of months, you're going to see this. You're going to see how we fight for this, how this is so unbelievably important to us. We want to be a gospel centered people. We want to be a community that's like a family, but we also want to take this thing that we hold dear to those who don't believe. We're a gospel centered community on mission. And that's what we're also going to see in our membership commitment. We do not exist to be a holy huddle. We do not exist to be inwardly focused. We exist to take this wonderful news that brought us from death to life, to people, to friends, to neighbors, to co workers so that they might taste and see that the Lord is good and be brought into the family of God. We care deeply about this.Now, one of the downsides to you using the word membership is because sometimes the word membership in our culture has a consumeristic bent. I mean, you could be a member of Costco. It's a pretty low commitment. You pay, what is it, 80 bucks a year? You know, and then you get to go and buy all sorts of bulk goods that certainly will, certainly some of it will spoil in your cabinets because it's just hard to use up all that stuff before it goes bad. Maybe your family's better than ours. We couldn't do it. Or Walmart. Plus, that's not important. There's a consumeristic nature sometimes to the word membership that makes it about self, that makes it about our interest. And I still think the word membership is worth fighting for. I still think it's worth reclaiming from our culture to help us see that it is not about self, that membership is about something bigger than us. It's about a people who leverage their time and their Talents and their energy and their money and their efforts and their lives so that others who do not know Christ, others who are sprinting towards an eternity apart from God under his wrath, who desperately need to know the love of a savior who bled and died for them, that it's worth our energy and our hustle and our grit to take that. To those who don't believe. It's not a country club. It's more like a military outpost. The membership we have here, we don't want to be a country club. Country club is low commitment. You pay your fee, you get to go play golf, get to enjoy the pool, but you don't keep the greens and you don't scrub the pool. We don't want to be that. We want to be more like a military outpost. Our country has military outposts all over the world. And the members of the US Military who are at those outposts, they are there to serve the interest of America. They. They're there to serve the interests of their commander in chief. They are there bound together, laser focused, whether it's promoting the values of America in that area of the world or at times, whether it's fighting a war, but they are laser focused, committed to the mission of America. And we have something so much better than that. We are citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world. And we serve a king who. Who reigns for eternity. And we get to serve him in a land that we do not belong to, that is foreign to us. And we get to serve his interests taking the gospel to people who do not know him, making enemies, friends, making the lost found, making the dead alive in Christ. That's what we want to be. The church is supposed to be. And I'll be honest, we've had folks in the past who came to our church looking for a country club and they just didn't stick. And we're not perfect. We got our flaws. You've been here long enough, you go learn them. But that's not what we want to be. But we've also had folks who've been there and done some of the Southern consumeristic Christianity. And they see the things that we're fighting for and they love it and they jump on and they see I do. I want to be a people that loves one another fiercely, that chases after Jesus together. That is taking the gospel to those who don't believe. I want to be a part of that. And they jump in and we hustle and we fight to be the church of the New Testament and the scriptures that we see that hustled and fought and was missional and had some dog in it. Like we want to be that type of church to missionaries, be everyday missionaries here in this city, in Columbia. So we want to be. And as we walk through the membership commitment over the next few months, this is something that is going to show up. And at times it's hard. I'm not going to lie. At times living out the ideals and the practices and the beliefs of our commitments is difficult. And what's helpful for my soul, maybe it'll be helpful for you, is I like to take the 10,000 year perspective when I think about all this stuff. 10,000 years from now, are you going to regret when you look back at this life not picking up more hobbies, not being the best pickleball player in the world, not using all your money to level up to the next part of society, to the next class, Are you going to regret not fulfilling the American dream and all of its trappings? Or are you going to be so insanely thankful that the work of the Spirit went to work in your heart in a way that helped you leverage your time and your energy and your heart's desire to be a people so deeply centered on the gospel, so deeply, fiercely loving one another and so outwardly focused that you took the gospel to some of your co workers who currently right now are walking as enemies of the cross of Christ because you love them, because you served them, because you stood in the way between them and hell and said Jesus is better than everything else. And they placed their faith in Jesus and they got baptized and they joined a group and they kept fighting to believe all the way to 10,000 years from now. They are standing in the presence of their Savior, worshiping him with you because you gave your life away to something that matters. That is what our commitment is all about. And that's what we're gonna look at the next couple of months. My hope is that for the members of this church, you'd be so deeply excited that you be so thankful for the work of Christ in our lives that we get to do this together. But if you're not new and you're checking us out, I hope you stick around. I hope my yelling didn't run you off. It's just, I'm just excited, you guys.

In this message, Pastor Duane Roberts walks through the painful consequences of David's household sin as recorded in 2 Samuel 13. After Amnon's assault of Tamar, the aftermath reveals a family unraveling under silence, anger, and division. David fails to act with justice, leaving Tamar broken, Amnon unrepentant, and Absalom embittered. Absalom's festering resentment eventually erupts into vengeance, which sets into motion years of betrayal, rebellion, and heartache for David's family. Pastor Roberts emphasizes that sin never stays isolated—it ripples outward, damaging relationships, trust, and even future generations. Yet even in the brokenness, God's Word points us toward healing, forgiveness, and the hope of restoration in Christ. The message challenges listeners to confront sin rather than ignore it, to seek reconciliation rather than revenge, and to trust God's justice over taking matters into their own hands.

Second Samuel 19 Take Aways:1. While David eventually made his return as the rightful king of Israel, so Jesus Christ will make His return as the Messianic Lion of Judah, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords—“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.” Revelation 1:72. Mephibosheth experienced reconciliation with David as he genuinely sought a restored relationship with his king above all else; may our relationship with King Jesus be the ultimate goal and priority in our lives—“Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!” 1 Chronicles 16:113. As King David sought to reward the faithful Barzillai for his generous service to the king and his people, so King Jesus will reward those who have faithfully served Him with a genuine and sincere heart—“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24

Second Samuel 18 Take Aways:1. God prevented David from being destroyed by empowering Hushai to defeat the strategies of the enemy, and we can trust that the Lord will continually intercede to prevent His people from being trampled by the enemy, Satan—“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:42. The Lord provided protection for those young priests who sought to faithfully serve their king in this dangerous war; similarly, the Lord will provide us the protection we need in the spiritual battle we fight as servants of King Jesus—“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:10-113. As the Lord preserved David in the wilderness through unexpected means, so God is faithful to provide for every need we may encounter in this life—“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

In this week's episode, I take a look at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of my anthologies at my Payhip store: JUNE25 The coupon code is valid through June 17, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 252 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is May 23rd, 2025, and today we are looking at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. We missed doing an episode last week for the simple reason that the day before I wanted to record, we had a bad thunderstorm that knocked down large portions of my fence, so my recording time was instead spent on emergency fence repair. However, the situation is under control, so hopefully we'll be back to weekly episodes for the immediate future. And now before we get to our main topics, let's have Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing projects.   So first up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook version of all my short story anthologies at my Payhip store and that is JUNE25. As always, the coupon code and links will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through June the 17th, 2025, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered.   And now an update on my current writing projects. Ghost in the Corruption is finished. It is publishing right now. In fact, I paused the publishing process to record this and so by the time this episode goes live, hopefully Ghost in the Corruption should be available at all ebook stores. My next main project now that Ghost in the Corruption is done will be Shield of Power and as of this recording I am 15,000 words into it. My secondary projects will be Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest and I'm 97,000 words into that, so hopefully that will come out very shortly after Shield of Power and I'll also be starting Ghost in the Siege, the final book in the Ghost Armor series as another secondary project and I'm currently zero words into that. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects.   In audiobook news, Ghost in the Assembly (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out and should be available at all the usual audiobook stores so you can listen to that if you are traveling for the summer. Recording of Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) is underway soon. I believe he's starting it this week, so hopefully we will have another audiobook in the Shield War series for you before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects.   00:02:17 Main Topic: Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup   And now let's move on, without any further ado, to our main topic. Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for my Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup. As usual, the movies and streaming shows are listed in order for my least favorite to my most favorite. The grades are based upon my own thoughts and opinions and are therefore wholly subjective. With all of that said, let's get to the movies and our first entry is MacGruber, which came out in 2010 and in all honesty, this might be objectively the worst movie I have ever seen. The Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketches are a parody of the old MacGyver action show from the ‘80s. And so the movie is essentially the sketch stretched out to make a parody of an ‘80s action movie. It is aggressively dumb and crude. Its only redeeming feature is that the movie knows it's quite stupid and so leans into the stupidity hard. I'll say this in its favor, MacGruber has no pretensions that is a good movie and does not take itself seriously and then runs away hard with that fact. For that he gets a plus, but nothing else. Overall grade: F+   Next up is Down Periscope, which came out in 1996. Now the fundamental question of any movie is the one Russell Crowe shouted at the audience in Gladiator: “Are you not entertained?” Sadly, I was not entertained with Down Periscope. This wanted to be a parody of Cold War era submarine thrillers like The Hunt for Red October, I say wanted because it didn't really succeed. Kelsey Grammer plays Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge, an unorthodox US Navy officer who wants command of his own nuclear sub, but he's alienated a few admirals, which is not traditionally a path to career advancement in the military. Dodge gets his chance in a Navy wargame where he has to command a diesel sub against nuclear subs. Sometimes parodies are so good that they become an example of the thing they are parodying (Hot Fuzz and Star Trek: Lower Decks are excellent examples of this phenomenon). The trouble is that the movie takes itself too seriously and just isn't all that funny. A few funny bits, true, but not enough of them. In the end, this was dumb funny but didn't resonate with me the way other dumb funny movies like Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder did. Overall grade: D   Next up is Deadpool and Wolverine, which came out in 2024. Unlike Down Periscope, I was entertained with this movie, though both movies reside on the dumb funny spectrum. Deadpool and Wolverine is basically one long meta in-joke/love letter for the last 30 years of superhero movies. If you've seen enough of those movies, you'll find those movies funny, if occasionally rather tasteless. If you haven't seen enough of those movies, Deadpool and Wolverine will just be incomprehensible. The plot is that Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool gets pulled into some Marvel style multiverse nonsense. To save his universe from destruction, he needs to recruit a Wolverine since in his universe, Wolverine died heroically.   In the process, Deadpool stumbles across the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. Together they have to overcome their mutual dislike and attempt to save Deadpool's universe from destruction at the hands of a rogue branch of the Time Variance Authority. This means the movie can bring in a lot of cameos from past Marvel films. Hugh Jackman's performance really carries the movie on its back. Like I said, this movie is essentially one very long Marvel in-joke. I thought it was funny. I definitely think it can't stand on its own without having seen a sufficient number of the other Marvel movies. Overall grade: C   Our next movie is the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which came out in 2024. This is very loosely (with an emphasis on “very”) based on Operation Postmaster during World War II, when British Special Forces seized some Italian ships that had been supplying parts for German U-boats. It was entertaining to watch but it couldn't quite make up its mind tonally if it was a war thriller or a heist movie about Western desperados recruited into a crew. It kind of tried to do both at the same time, which killed the momentum. Like, the first parts of the movie where the protagonists take out a Nazi patrol boat and then free a prisoner from a base were good thriller stuff, but then the plot fused with the heist stuff and really slowed down through the middle forty percent or so. It was also oddly stylized with a lot of spaghetti western-style music that seemed out of place and some stuff just didn't make sense, like at the end after pulling off the mission, the protagonists were all arrested. That just seems bizarre since if anything, Winston Churchill and a lot of the British wartime leadership were enthusiastic about special operations and probably had too much confidence in the effectiveness of covert operations. So I did enjoy watching this, but I can see why it didn't make a lot of money at the box office. Overall Grade: C   Next up is The Gorge, which came out in 2025. This was a peculiar mix of science fiction, romance, and horror. For the romance part, perhaps shooting zombies together is a good idea for a first date. Before I dig into the movie, a brief rant. In one scene, a character is using a chainsaw with no protective gear whatsoever and she's not fighting zombies or anything in a situation where she has to pick up a chainsaw without preparing first. She's trimming branches to pass time. If you're using a chainsaw, at a minimum you want protective eyewear and headphones. Ideally you'd want chainsaw pants as well to reduce the chance of serious injury if you slip and swing the saw into your leg. Since I became a homeowner, I've used a chainsaw a number of times and believe me, you definitely want good eye and ear protection. This has been your public safety announcement for this movie review.   Anyway, loner former sniper Levi is approached by a high ranking intelligence officer giving him a mysterious job. He needs to guard a tower overlooking a mysterious mist-filled gorge for one year. On the other side of the gorge is another tower, guarded by an elite Lithuanian sniper named Drasa. Like Levi, Drasa has a fair bit of emotional damage and they're officially forbidden to communicate. However, they're both lonely and they soon start communicating over the gorge using telescopes and whiteboard messages. Eventually Levi gets emotionally close enough to Drasa to rig a zipline to cross the gorge and speak with her in person.   Unfortunately, it turns out the gorge is full of twisted creatures that storm out and attack and the job of the two snipers is to keep them contained. If Levi and Drasa want to save their lives, they'll need to unravel the dark secret within the gorge. This movie was interesting and I enjoyed watching it, but it falls apart if you think about it too much (or at all). Like the chainsaw thing I ranted about above. The entire movie runs on that sort of logic. That said, I appreciate how the filmmakers were trying something new instead of something like Deadpool and Wolverine. Additionally, this was an Apple+ movie and it's interesting how Apple's approach to streaming is to just make a whole bunch of random stuff that's totally distinct, from Ted Lasso to Mythic Quest to Severance to The Gorge. It's like, “we have more money than most countries, so we're going to make Ted Lasso because we feel like it.” Then again, Apple+ is apparently losing a billion dollars every year, so maybe they'll eventually change their minds about that approach. Overall Grade: B-   Next up is Click, which came out in 2006. Cross It's a Wonderful Life with A Christmas Carol and the comedic style of Adam Sandler and you end up with Click. Basically Sandler plays Michael Newman, a workaholic architect with a demanding boss and increasingly strained relationship with his wife and children due to his workload. In a fit of exasperation with his situation, he goes to Bed Bath and Beyond, where he encounters an eccentric employee named Morty (played entertainingly by Christopher Walken). Morty gives him a remote control that lets him fast forward through time, which Michael then uses to skip the boring and tedious parts of his life, but he overuses the remote and goes too far into the future and sees the disastrous results of his current life choices. Definitely a story used in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life but effectively told and I was entertained (rather on the crude side, though). Overall Grade: B- Next up is Mr. Deeds, which came out in 2002. This was actually one of Adam Sandler's better movies, in my opinion. It was a remake of the ‘30s movie Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. In this new version, Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, a popular pizzeria owner in a small New Hampshire town. Unbeknownst to Deeds, his uncle is the owner of a major media mega corporation and when he dies, Deeds is his legal heir. When the company's CEO and chief lawyer arrive at the pizzeria to inform him of this fact, Deeds goes to New York and soon finds himself involved in the CEO's sinister machinations. Yet he happens to rescue an attractive woman from a mugger, but there is more to her than meets the eye. The movie was funny and not as crude, well, not quite as crude as some of Sandler's other stuff. It had good story structure and several great lines, my favorite of which was “he was weak and cowardly and wore far too much cologne.”   Sandler's movies, in a strange way, are often very medieval. Like various medieval fables had a savvy peasant outwitting pompous lords, greedy merchants, and corrupt clergymen. The best Adam Sandler protagonist tends to be a good natured everyman who defeats the modern equivalent of medieval authority figures- evil CEOs, arrogant star athletes, sinister bureaucrats and so forth. Overall Grade: B     Next up is House of David, which came out in 2025 and this is basically the story of King David from the Bible told in the format of an epic fantasy TV series. Like if someone wanted to do an epic fantasy series about Conan the Barbarian, it could follow the same stylistic format as this show. And of course Conan and David followed a similar path from adventurer to king. Anyway, if one were to pick a part of the Bible from which to make a movie or TV series, the story of David would be an excellent choice because David's life was so dramatic that it would hardly require any embellishments in the adaptation. The story is in the Books of First and Second Samuel. King Saul is ruling over the Israelites around 1000 BC or so, but has grown arrogant. Consequently, God instructs the prophet Samuel to inform Saul that the kingdom will be taken away from him and given to another. God then dispatches Samuel to anoint David as the new king of Israel. David is a humble shepherd but then enters Saul's service and undertakes feats of daring, starting with defeating the giant Goliath and leading Saul's troops to victory and battle against Israel's numerous enemies. (The Iron Age Middle East was even less peaceful than it is now.) Eventually, Saul's paranoia and madness gets the best of him and he turns on David, who flees into exile. After Saul and his sons are killed in battle with the Philistines. David returns and becomes the acknowledged king after a short civil war with Saul's surviving sons and followers.   If Saul's fatal flaw was his arrogance of pride, David's seems to have been women. While the story of David and Bathsheba is well known, David nonetheless had eight wives (most of them at the same time) and an unknown but undoubtedly large number of concubines. Naturally David's children from his various wives and concubines did not get along and David was almost deposed due to the conflicts between his children. Unlike Saul and later David's son Solomon, David was willing to repent when a prophet of God informed him of wrongdoing and to be fair to David, monogamy was generally not practiced among Early Iron Age Middle Eastern monarchies and dynastic struggles between brothers from different mothers to seize their father's kingdoms were quite common, but enough historical digression.   Back to the show, which covered David's life up to the death of Goliath. I thought it was quite well done. Good performances, good cinematography, excellent battles, good set design and costuming, and a strong soundtrack. All the actors were good, but I really think the standout performances were Stephen Lang as Samuel, Ali Sulaman is King Saul, Ayelet Zurer as Saul's wife Queen Ahinoam, and Davood Ghadami as David's jerkish (but exasperated and well-intentioned) eldest brother Eliab. Martyn Ford just looks extremely formidable as Goliath. You definitely believe no one in their right mind want to fight this guy.   Making fiction of any kind based on sacred religious texts is often tricky because no matter what you do, someone's going to get mad at you. The show has an extensive disclaimer at the beginning of each episode saying that it is fiction inspired by the Bible. That said, House of David doesn't really alter or deviate from the Biblical account, though it expands upon some things for the sake of storytelling. Queen Ahinoam is only mentioned once in the Bible as the wife of Saul, but she has an expanded role in the show and is shown as the one who essentially introduces Saul to the Witch of Endor. Goliath also gets backstory as one of the “Anakim,” a race of giants that lived in Canaan in ancient times, which is something that is only mentioned in passing in the Old Testament. Overall, I enjoyed the show and I hope it gets a second season.   What's interesting, from a larger perspective, is to see how the wheel of history keeps turning. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Biblical epics were a major film genre. The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur with Charlton Heston are probably the ones best remembered today. Eventually, the genre just sort of ran out of gas, much the way superhero movies were in vogue for about 20 years and began running out of steam around 2023 or so. Like, I enjoyed Thunderbolts (which we're going to talk about in a little bit), but it's not going to make a billion dollars the way Marvel stuff often did in the 2010s. The wheel just keeps turning and perhaps has come back around to the popularity of Biblical epics once more. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Chef, which came out in 2014. I actually saw this back in 2021, but I watched it again recently to refresh my memory and here are my thoughts. I quite liked it. It's about a chef named Carl Casper, who's increasingly unhappy with his work after he gets fired over a Twitter war with a writer who criticized his cooking. Carl is out of options and so he starts a food truck and has to both rediscover his love of cooking and reconnect with his ex-wife and 10-year-old son. In Storytelling: How to Write a Novel (my book about writing), I talked about different kinds of conflict. Carl's conflict is an excellent example of an entirely internal conflict. The critic is an external enemy, but he's basically the inciting incident.   Carl's real enemy is his own internal conflict about art versus commerce and a strained relationship with his son. I recommend the movie. It was rated R for bad language, but there's no nudity or explicit sexual content and honestly, if you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen or a warehouse, you've heard much worse in terms of language. The movie also has an extremely valuable lesson: stay off social media when you're angry. Overall Grade: A     Next up is Thunderbolts, which came out in 2025 and I thought this was pretty good, both very dark and yet with quite a lot of humor to balance the darkness. Former assassin Yelena Belova has been working as a mercenary for the sinister director of the CIA, Valentina de Fontaine (now there's a villain name if there ever was one). Yelena has grown disillusioned with her life and career and is suffering from increasing depression since she never really dealt with the death of her sister. Valentina promises her one last job, only for Yelena to realize that Valentina decided to dispose of all her freelance contractors at once, which includes US Agent and Ghost (previously seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Antman and the Wasp). In the process of escaping Valentina's trap, Yelena stumbles across a mysterious man who identifies himself as Bob, who has no memory of how he got there, but shows increasingly unusual abilities. Yelena wants to deal with Valentina's betrayal, but it turns out one of Valentina's science projects has gotten out of control and is threatening the world. The movie was well constructed enough that it didn't rely too heavily on previous Marvel continuity. It was there, but you probably wouldn't be lost without it. It almost feels like Marvel looked at the stuff they did the last couple of years and said, okay, a lot of this didn't work, but makes great raw material for new things. It helped that the central conflict was in the end, very human and about the characters, not stopping a generic villain from getting a generic doomsday device. Overall Grade: A   Next up is The Hound of the Baskervilles, which came out in 1988. This is a movie length episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes television series, which had Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. The plot deals with Sir Henry Baskerville, the American heir to an English manor set in the Windswept moors of Dartmoor. Apparently there's an ancestral curse laid over the Baskerville estate that manifests in the form of a spectral hound. Local rumors hold that the previous holder of the manor, Sir Charles Baskerville, was killed by the ghostly hound and many of the local people fear it. The local physician, Dr. Mortimer, is so worried about the hound that he comes to Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes, of course, is skeptical of any supernatural explanation and soon becomes worried that an extremely subtle and sinister murderer is stalking Sir Henry.   Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of the character and Edward Hardwicke's version of Watson is a calm, reliable man of action who sensibly takes a very large revolver with him when going into danger. Definitely worth watching, Overall grade: A   Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which came out in 2024. The 2020s have been a downer of a decade in many ways, but on the plus side, between Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, people have finally figured out how to make good video game movies, so we've got that going for us. Sonic 3 was an excellent kids movie, as were the first two in the trilogy. In this one Sonic is living with Knuckles and Tails under the care of their human friends Tom and Maddy, but then a dark secret emerges. The government has been keeping a Superpowered hedgehog named Shadow in stasis and Shadow has broken out. It's up to Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to save the day.   Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik is in a funk after his defeat at Sonic's hands in the last movie, but then his long lost grandfather, Gerald Robotnik returns seeking the younger Dr. Robotnik's help in his own sinister plans. Keanu Reeves was great as Shadow (think John Wick if he was a superpowered space hedgehog in a kid's movie). Jim Carrey famously said he would retire from acting unless a golden script came along and apparently that golden script was playing Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his evil grandfather Gerald. To be fair, both the Robotniks were hilarious.   It is amusing that Sonic only exists because in the 1990s, Sega wanted a flagship video game character that won't get them sued by either Nintendo or Disney. It is also amusing that the overall message of the Sonic movies seems to be not to trust the government. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Paddington in Peru, which came out in 2024. This is also an excellent kids' movie. In this installment, Paddington has settled into London with the Brown family and officially become a UK citizen. However, he receives a letter from Peru that his Aunt Lucy has mysteriously disappeared into the jungle. Distraught, Paddington and the Browns set off for Peru at once. Adventures ensue involving mysterious lost treasure, a crazy boat captain, and an order of singing nuns who might not quite be what they appear. Anyway, it's a good kids' movie. I think Paddington 2 was only slightly better because Hugh Grant as the chief villain, crazy actor Phoenix Buchanan, was one of those lightning in the bottle things like Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Overall Grade: A   Now for the two best things I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. The first of them is Andor Season Two, which came out in 2025. Star Wars kind of has an age range the way Marvel stuff does now. What do I mean by that? In the Marvel comics and some of the TV series like Jessica Jones, they get into some really dark and heavy stuff, very mature themes. The MCU movies can have some darkness to them, but not as much because they're aiming at sort of escapist adventures for the general audience. Then there are kid shows like Spidey and Friends that a relative of mine just loved when he was three. You wouldn't at all feel comfortable showing a 3-year-old Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Spidey and Friends is just fine.   Star Wars now kind of has that age range to its stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to see a dark meditation upon human nature. Sometimes you need something kid friendly to occupy the kids you're babysitting and sometimes you just want to relax and watch Mando and Baby Yoda mow down some space pirates or something. All that said, Andor Season Two is some of the darkest and the best stuff that Star Wars has ever done. It successfully shifts genres from Escapist Pulp Space Fantasy to a gritty Political/Espionage Thriller. We in the audience know that the emperor is a Sith Lord who can use Evil Space Magic and wants to make himself immortal, but that fact is totally irrelevant to the characters. Even though some of the characters are high ranking in their respective organizations, this is essentially a “ground's eye” view of the Rebellion and life under the Empire.   In some ways, this is like Star Wars' version of Wolf Hall (which we're going to talk about shortly), in that we know how it ends already, but the dramatic tension comes from the harrowing emotional journey the characters undertake on the way to their inevitable destinations. Cassian Andor is now working for the nascent Rebellion under the direction of ruthless spymaster Luthen Rael. Mon Mothma is in the Imperial Senate, covertly funneling money to the Rebellion and realizing just how much the Rebellion will require of her before the end. Syril Karn, the ineffective corporate cop from Season One, has fallen in love with the ruthless secret police supervisor Dedra Meero, but he's unaware that Director Krennic has ordered Meero to manufacture a false flag incident on the planet Gorman so the planet can be strip-mined for resources to build the Death Star and Dedra has decided to use Syril to help accomplish it. All the actors do amazing jobs with their roles. Seriously, this series as actors really should get at least one Emmy. Speaking of Director Krennic, Ben Mendelson returns as Orson Krennic, who is one of my favorite least favorite characters, if you get my drift. Krennic is the oily, treacherous middle manager we've all had to deal with or work for at some point in our lives, and Mendelson plays him excellently. He's a great villain, the sort who is ruthless to his underlings and thinks he can manipulate his superiors right up until Darth Vader starts telekinetically choking him. By contrast, the villain Major Partagaz (played by Anton Lesser) is the middle manager we wish we all had - stern but entirely fair, reasonable, and prizes efficiency and good work while despising office drama. Unfortunately, he works for the Empire's secret police, so all those good qualities are in the service of evil and therefore come to naught. Finally, Episode Eight is one of the most astonishing episodes of TV I've ever seen. It successfully captures the horror of an episode of mass violence and simultaneously has several character arcs reach their tumultuous climax and manages to be shockingly graphic without showing in a lot of actual blood. Andor was originally supposed to be five seasons, but then Peak Streaming collapsed, and so the remaining four seasons were compressed down to one. I think that was actually to the show's benefit because it generates some amazing tension and there's not a wasted moment. Overall Grade: A+   Now for the second of my two favorite things I saw, and that would be Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which came out in 2024, but I actually saw it in 2025. This is a dramatization of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, who is King Henry VIII's chief lieutenant during the key years of the English Reformation. The first series came out in 2015, but the nine year gap between this and between the second series and the first series actually works quite well since Thomas Cromwell looks like he ages nine years in a single year (which may be what actually happened given how stressful working for someone like Henry VIII must have been). Anyway, in The Mirror and the Light, Cromwell has successfully arranged the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry's previous queen. Though Cromwell is haunted by his actions, Henry still needs a queen to give him a male heir, so he marries Jane Seymour. Cromwell must navigate the deadly politics of the Tudor Court while trying to push his Protestant views of religion, serve his capricious master Henry, fend off rivals for the King's favor, and keep his own head attached to his shoulders in the process. Since Cromwell's mental state is deteriorating due to guilt over Anne's death and the downfall of his former master Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's a fickle and dangerous master at the best of times, this is an enterprise that is doomed to fail. Of course, if you're at all familiar with the history of Henry's reign and the English reformation, you know that Cromwell's story does not have a happy ending. Rather, Wolf Hall is a tragedy about a talented man who didn't walk away from his power until it was too late and he was trapped. Anyway, in my opinion, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light was just excellent. All the performances were superb. Mark Rylance is great as Cromwell and has some excellent “WTF/I'm SO screwed” expressions as Cromwell's situation grows worse and worse. Bernard Hill played the Duke of Norfolk in the first series, but sadly died before Series Two, so Timothy Spall steps in and he does an excellent job of channeling Hill's portrayal of the Duke as an ambitious, crude-humored thug.   Damien Lewis is amazing as Henry VIII and his performance captures Henry's mixture of charisma, extreme vindictiveness, and astonishing self-absorption. The real Henry was known for being extremely charming even to the end of his life, but the charm was mixed with a volcanic temper that worsened as Henry aged and may have been exacerbated by a severe head injury. Lewis's performance can shift from that charm to the deadly fury in a heartbeat. The show rather cleverly portrays Henry's growing obesity and deteriorating health by having Lewis wear a lot of big puffy coats and limp with an impressively regal walking stick.   Overall, I would say this and Andor were the best thing I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. I wouldn't say that Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is an accurate historical reputation. In real life, Cromwell was rather more thuggish and grasping (though far more competent than his rivals and his master) and of necessity the plot simplifies historical events, but it's just a superb historical drama. Overall Grade: A+ As a final note, I should say that of all the 2024 and 2025 movies mentioned here, the only one that actually saw in the theater was Thunderbolts, and I hadn't actually planned to see it in theaters, but a family member unexpectedly bought tickets for it, so I went along. Which I suppose is the movie industry's biggest problem right now. The home viewing experience is often vastly superior to going to the theater. The theater has the big screen and snacks, but at home you can have a pretty nice setup and you can pause whatever you want, go to the bathroom, and you can get snacks for much more cheaply. That's just much more comfortable than the movie theater.   Additionally, going to the theater has the same serious problem as booking a flight in that you're an enclosed space with complete strangers for several hours, which means you're potentially in a trust fall with idiots. All it takes is one person behaving badly or trying to bring their fake service dog to ruin or even cancel a flight, and the theater experience has much of the same problem, especially since the standards for acceptable public behavior have dropped so much from a combination of widespread smartphone adoption and COVID. The difference between the movie industry and the airline industry is that if you absolutely have to get from New York to Los Angeles in a single day, you have no choice but to book a flight and hope for the best. But if you want to see a movie and are willing to exercise some patience, you just have to wait a few months for it to turn up on streaming. I'm not sure how the movie industry can battle that, but sadly, it is much easier to identify problems than to solve them.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe, stay healthy, and see you all next week.

Second Samuel 17 Take Aways:1. God prevented David from being destroyed by empowering Hushai to defeat the strategies of the enemy, and we can trust that the Lord will continually intercede to prevent His people from being trampled by the enemy, Satan—“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:42. The Lord provided protection for those young priests who sought to faithfully serve their king in this dangerous war; similarly, the Lord will provide us the protection we need in the spiritual battle we fight as servants of King Jesus—“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:10-113. As the Lord preserved David in the wilderness through unexpected means, so God is faithful to provide for every need we may encounter in this life—“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

Second Samuel 16 Take Aways:1. While the craftiness of Ziba allowed him to temporarily steal away the inheritance of Mephibosheth, his slanderous conduct will later be addressed with consequences reminding us that deceptive behavior will eventually be exposed and judged accordingly—“For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:142. Though Shimei wrongly cursed David, the king did not revile in return but instead trusted the Lord God to defend and avenge him; may we strive to demonstrate such patient meekness in similar situations—1 Peter 2:23 considers the conduct of Jesus saying “when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously”3. Absalom accepted wicked counsel and willingly established his kingdom upon immorality which will never generate a blessed legacy reminding us of the importance of seeking godly wisdom and abiding in righteousness—“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2

(Genesis 1:2) The most misunderstood and misrepresented Person of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit. How well do you know the Spirit of God? We are introduced to Him on the first page of the Bible and it is time we all got to know Him better. (0945250219) ----more---- An Introduction to the Holy Spirit Have you met the Holy Spirit? Some people refer to the Holy Spirit like He's an object or a thing or a force, but in fact, He is a real person. Co equal, co existent, co eternal with God the Father and God the Son. And the first time we meet Him is not on the day of Pentecost.  The First Mention of the Holy Spirit The first time we meet Him is in Genesis chapter 1. It's amazing to me, really, how many of these great doctrinal truths begin on the opening pages of Scripture. Someone called Genesis 1:11 a seedbed of doctrine, and they said that every major truth in the Bible can be found in seed form in the opening chapters of Genesis. I think that's beautiful. Genesis 1 verse 1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Now, did you catch that? The Spirit of God, right there He is, in the creation. Remember, God is a Spirit. And the Spirit of God is at work in the creative work. He's hovering, He's brooding over His creation from the very beginning. He's involved in creation.  The Holy Spirit as the Breath of God The psalmist said in Psalm 33:6, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." The Holy Spirit literally is the breath of God. Job said in Job 33:4, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." So the Holy Spirit is the creator. The Holy Spirit is the one who gave you life. When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul, the Holy Spirit was at work. That same Holy Spirit that breathed into man and the creation is the same Holy Spirit we find in Scripture that gave us the Word. The Bible says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Literally, God breathed it out. It is the work of His Holy Spirit. Second Peter 1:21, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Second Samuel 23:2, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and His Word was in my tongue. Amen." This book we're studying, this Bible, you have the Holy Spirit to thank for that. Here's what's wonderful, if you're a Christian, the Author lives in your heart. The Holy Spirit, who gave the Word, lives inside of you. Ask Him to help you understand it. He'll help you. Talk to the Author today. I do love the Holy Spirit. Oh, I do love the Holy Spirit. I love the Holy Spirit because everything I know about God, the Holy Spirit taught me. I say that with authority and conviction because it's impossible to understand spiritual truth apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. So everything I know about Jesus, everything I know about God, everything I know about the Bible, I know because of the Holy Spirit. He's our teacher.  The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament We see Him in the Old Testament. In Genesis 6 verse 3, He is the restrainer of wickedness. The Lord said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man. He was holding back wickedness." We see Him enabling believers, even in the Old Testament, for special service. For example, in Genesis 41, the Spirit of God was seen on Joseph. Numbers 27:18 the Lord said to Moses, "Take thee, Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit." Daniel 4, verse 8, they recognize that Daniel had the Spirit of God. We know that the prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit. Samuel was moved by the Spirit of God. The Lord poured the horn of oil anointing David in 1 Samuel 16 verse 13, and the Bible says< "The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." The Spirit of the Lord came on Samson. Over and over again, the Holy Spirit was working in the Old Testament in the lives of men.  The Holy Spirit in the Life of Christ Then we see Him in the life of Christ. In His conception, Luke 1:35, the Holy Ghost came upon Mary. The power of the highest overshadowed her. Where do you think the Lord Jesus came from? He had no earthly father. So He was conceived of the Holy Ghost. That's a powerful thought. Matthew 1:20 says, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." The Holy Spirit came at the baptism of Christ. You remember that beautiful dove, that picture of purity and peace coming down from heaven, lighting upon the Lord Jesus? And it's beautiful. There's no record that the dove ever left Him. It's symbolic of the fact that the Holy Spirit came upon Christ. But he never left Him. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came and went. He didn't indwell every believer consistently all the time. He came and went. But when Christ came, He came and stayed. And when you come to know the Lord Jesus and Christ comes to live in you, Oh dear brother, dear sister, the Holy Spirit doesn't come and go. He comes and abides with you forever. The Bible says of Christ that He was filled with the Spirit, and He was led of the Spirit. All through His earthly ministry. He was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do miracles, and He ministered in that power. Even in His death. His death at the cross was in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9 verse 14 says, "How much more shall the blood of Christ Who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." The Holy Spirit was at work in the life of Christ. He was at work in His resurrection. Two, Romans one, verse four. He is declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. But now here's where it gets good and here's where it gets very personal. The same Holy Spirit that worked in the Old Testament and that worked in the life of Christ is at work in your life today. Listen to Romans 8 verse 11. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. I tell you, I just want to stop right now and say praise God. Thank the Lord for this. The same Holy Spirit that moved in creation is moving in my life. The same Holy Spirit that empowered men in the Old Testament wants to empower me today. And the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that same resurrection power and person lives inside of me at this moment. The Holy Spirit of God is at work in every stage of history, all through the Word of God, in the lives of all of those who will be yielded and open to Him. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church In the New Testament we see that He came to indwell every believer on the day of Pentecost. In the Acts chapter 1, verse number 5, Christ said that He would come and guess what? He came. Peter said in Acts chapter number 11 that the Holy Ghost came upon the Gentiles just as much as He did the Jews. That's glorious. That's powerful. Acts chapter 2 is the great record of that event when the Holy Spirit came to indwell every believer on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit works in and through His church. You can study that all through the New Testament. But here's the point.  Personal Application of the Holy Spirit's Work Is the Holy Spirit working in you today? And maybe the better question is, are you allowing the Holy Spirit of God to work in and through your life? See, if you're not careful, you can study doctrinal things and it seems so so mystical and so distant when it's supposed to be personal and a living reality in you. They said of a great preacher of a bygone generation that his doctrine was all application, and his application was all truth and was all doctrine. I really like that. You don't separate what you believe from how you behave. So if you believe the Holy Spirit is God and you believe the Holy Spirit has come to live inside of you because you've trusted Christ as your Savior, and you believe the Holy Spirit is all powerful and all present and all wise, then I wonder, how's that going to affect your life today? Are you going to yield yourself to the control of the Holy Spirit? Ephesians 5 18 says, And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Will you say to the Holy Spirit right now, I want you to control me today. I yield myself to you today. Holy Spirit of God, have your way with me. I hope and pray today that you'll let what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit affect what you do with your life today. Or may I should say, what He does with your life today. Let the Holy Spirit have His way with you. Repeating what other people have said about the Bible is not enough. We must know the biblical reason behind what we believe. Outro and Resources We hope you will visit us at etj.bible to access our library of Bible teaching resources, including book-by-book studies of Scripture. You'll also find studies to watch, listen to, or read. We are so grateful for those who pray for us, who share the biblical content, and for those who invest to help us advance this ministry worldwide. Again, thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time on Enjoying the Journey.  

This episode is the seventh session of a Tabernacle Discipleship Group entitled "Old Testament Survey." To access the handouts for this particular study, visit our website, https://www.tabernaclebaptistchurch.com/old-testament-survey.

When Daniel and his friends were taken captive to Babylon, they found themselves in a world completely unlike their own. Even their names were changed to align with the pagan culture around them. Facing pressure to conform and worship false gods, it would have been easy for them to give in and lose their true identity. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores how Daniel resisted an oppressive society, encouraging Christ followers today to stand firm in their identity in Christ.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef challenges you to consider what you feed your soul.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

When Daniel was being trained in the Babylonian palace, he was fed lies about spirituality and the meaning of life. Just as we face lies every day from our society, Daniel was being indoctrinated into the pagan culture in which he was held captive. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef exhorts believers to know what they believe and why.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores how to practically overcome fear with faith.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

We will not always face clear-cut decisions between right and wrong. Sometimes we may have to choose between two positive or two negative choices. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef reveals our best defense against sin and temptation, tests and trials.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One, Part 3: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

Sometimes, battles come from bullies or situations. But other times, struggles come from within as we face temptations. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef digs into one of the greatest temptations that Daniel and his friends faced.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One, Part 3: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

We can learn a lot from Daniel's response to King Nebuchadnezzar as we consider how to deal with bullies in our lives. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef examines Daniel's boldness and courage in going before Nebuchadnezzar.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One, Part 2: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

As you pass your tests in life, be careful not to fall into the temptation of giving yourself credit for your success. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at Daniel's first reaction when God granted him insight into Nebuchadnezzar's dream.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One, Part 2: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

Almost everyone can remember at least one bully from school—especially if they shoved you on the playground, teased people relentlessly, or threatened and manipulated others. But bullies aren't found only in the schoolyard. Bullies exist in our families, in our workplaces, and in our communities. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef evaluates the wise response of Daniel to the bully Nebuchadnezzar.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One, Part 2: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

Have you faced an exceedingly challenging circumstance that tested every bit of your strength, intelligence, and character? Maybe you are facing a troubling time right now, and your whole life is at a turning point. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at the example of Daniel's trust in God.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series Discover the Power of One: LISTEN NOW | WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

The cycle of unfaithfulness, exile, repentance, and deliverance goes back to our first parents, Adam and Eve. They chose to go the wrong way and set in motion this cycle of rebellion and suffering that has echoed throughout history. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef examines the cycle of sin that began in the Garden of Eden.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

Why do so many believers lose sight of their eternal hope? Why do so many Christians take their eyes off the prize of their heavenly dwelling place, the City of God? In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef warns against the earthly concerns that distract us from eternity.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 5: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef exhorts us to keep our eyes on heaven.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 5: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores the earthly city of Jerusalem to understand the City of God that will one day come down from heaven.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 4: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef calls us to consider how we should live to represent the Good News of Christ. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

If we in the church would humble ourselves and repent of our sins, God will lead us out of our spiritual and cultural exile. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef exhorts Christians to search our hearts and repent of sin. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for any gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

There are always consequences when God's people cease to honor Him and obey His Word. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at the consequences of friendship with the world. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!ffer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

The story of God's confusing the languages at the tower of Babel is familiar. What is less familiar is the rebellion that motivated the tower's construction. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef warns against the Babylonian revival happening in our day. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 3: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In the Bible, Babylon symbolizes every people or culture that opposes God. It was also a real place that earned a real reputation. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at the motive behind the tower of Babel. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 3: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

As believers, we live in the City of Man—but we are pilgrims in this world. We know our true home is the City of God. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at what it means to live as pilgrims and ambassadors in this world.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon How Shall We Live Now?, Part 4: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

Are you praying for a spiritual revival in your home, family, community, nation, or world? In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef encourages us that a return to the pure Gospel has happened before and can happen again. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef reveals the only way to love others authentically.If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series How Shall We Live Now?: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores what it means to have a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon The Secrets of Positive Living, Part 13: LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount! *Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024

David felt the same emotions you may be feeling today—loneliness, despair, and fear. However, even though he struggled occasionally to trust God (see 1 Samuel 27:1), David longed to please the Lord deep down. He had a heart after God's heart. And the God who sees into the depths of your heart and mind is the one who will honor you for that desire—a desire clearly displayed in David's sacred song in 2 Samuel 22. bIn today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef examines David's sacred song that carried him through the ups and downs of life. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series A Heart for God: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

David was a man with uncommon faith in the Lord. So, when he committed adultery and then murdered the woman's husband, it was entirely out of character. Thankfully, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David's sin—to invite him to take the first step toward restoration. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef examines Nathan's parable as an allegory of David's failure and response. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series A Heart for God: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores David's kindness toward Mephibosheth as a foreshadowing of God's grace to us in Christ. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series A Heart for God: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount! *Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef examines David's seven-fold prayer after he heard “no” from God. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon series A Heart for God: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In this age of self-care, self-discipline seems to be a dirty word. But good intentions and warm, fuzzy feelings toward God won't make us fruitful Christians. To be a fruitful Christian, we must submit to the Lord Jesus Christ in everything we do—from how we spend our money to how we spend our time. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef explores self-discipline and Christlikeness. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 16: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

Worship is our only response to God's great mercy. It is our only response to His unbelievable, indescribable, unfathomable grace. It is the only way to appropriately express our gratitude and thanksgiving. And it is the secret to lasting contentment, joy, victory, and satisfaction. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at true worship. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 15: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef considers God's infinite nature, which requires us to humble ourselves. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 14: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

Salvation is not dependent on either our ethnicity or church attendance. Our relationship with God is a matter of the heart. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef reminds us that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 14: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef reveals four reasons why people reject God's offer of grace in Romans. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 13: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In Romans 8-9, Paul unpacks the concept of election—how God, in His sovereignty, has predestined believers to be saved since before the foundation of the world. Then, in Romans 10, Paul begins to explain how all of humanity is responsible for responding in faith to God's offer of grace. In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef dives into Paul's teaching on election. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 13: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef looks at why we are to bear witness to Christ. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 12: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount! *Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

In today's devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef dives into the mercy and sovereignty of God. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 12: LISTEN NOW| WATCH NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount! *Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

Today's devotional offers four Truths to encourage us as we seek to live for Christ. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 9: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

Today's devotional gives insight into the freedom found only through salvation in Jesus Christ. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 9: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

Every person on the face of the earth has either sin or Jesus as their master. There are only two choices; there is no third—today's devotional challenges us to consider whether we obey sin or Jesus. If you would like more insight into today's devotional topic, watch or listen to Dr. Michael Youssef's sermon From Valley to Victory, Part 8: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOWAVAILABLE NOW FOR YOUR GIFT OF ANY AMOUNTDo you know where to turn in the midst of brokenness? Have you exchanged self-reliance for absolute trust in the living God? In A Heart for God: Lessons from the Life of David, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you on a journey through the highs and lows of David's life. As you explore his greatest victories and deepest failures in First and Second Samuel, you'll see God's faithfulness to use willing vessels for His glory. As you experience David's most desperate cries in the Psalms, you'll witness the power of a life completely surrendered to God. And as you see the grander picture of David's life, you'll also discover how it all points to Christ Jesus, the perfect King who uses broken people to do great things for His Kingdom. Request your copy today for your gift of any amount!*Offer valid in US, UK, and Canada through October 19, 2024.

The army wouldn’t give Tony Vaccaro a chance as a photographer, but that didn’t stop him. Between terrifying moments of dodging artillery shells and shrapnel that seemed to rain from the trees, he took pictures anyway. Then, as his friends slept, he used their helmets to mix the chemicals to develop his film. The nighttime forest became the darkroom in which Vaccaro created a timeless record of World War II’s battle of Hürtgen Forest. King David lived through his share of battles and dark times. Second Samuel 22 says, “The Lord delivered [David] from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul” (v. 1). David used those experiences to produce a record of God’s faithfulness. He said, “Waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me” (v. 5). David soon pivoted from desperation to hope. “In my distress I called to the Lord,” he recalled (v. 6). “From his temple he heard my voice” (v. 7). David made certain to praise God for His unfailing help. “The Lord turns my darkness into light,” he said. “With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall” (vv. 29–30). David turned his difficulties into an opportunity to tell the world about his faithful God. We can do the same. After all, we rely on the One who turns darkness into light.

Dr. Aaron Higashi is one of our favorites, and we're not alone! The folks over at The Bible for Normal People are fans, as well, and have enlisted Aaron to write a "for normal people" book about First and Second Samuel. These two books include some of the Bible's most famous and most infamous characters and moments. If you've ever read about the exploits of biblical David, and wondered if he is, in fact, a good guy... well, Dr. Higashi is right there with you. We'll ask him about his take on David and many other biblical figures and stories, and the conclusions may surprise you. Or not. This is Data Over Dogma, after all. Look for Aaron on the various social media places under the handle @abhbible. Preorder 1 & 2 Samuel for Normal People: A Guide to Prophets, Kings, and Some Pretty Terrible Men here: https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Normal-People-Prophets-Terrible-ebook/dp/B0D7KBPRVN For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma      Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices