Episodes
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You know all those pictures of the blonde women with harps and halos and swan's wings flying over a bunch of shepherds and some sheep while spotlights from heaven light them all up while the birth of Jesus is announced?
Where does any of that come from? Because it isn't from the stories in scripture. What does the Bible say happened? Oh, it's something so much better...
Join us for the third week of Advent and the true story of why it mattered to shepherds that this particular baby was born where and how he was.
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We've grown a whole tragic mythology around the Christmas story that makes me CRAZY. This is supposed to be a CELEBRATION, people! Why do we insist on ignoring all the joy and adding false horrors into a tale that has enough difficulty of its own?
This Christmas, try sticking to the scriptural story of Christmas and see if the true story isn't a thousand times BETTER than the one you see on TV.
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There is HOPE in the real story of Christmas that you'll never find under a tree. There are examples of people who have been clinging to the world's shame and condemnation accepting - if somewhat dubiously at first - that God can and does love and care for them for who and what they are. And that if that is true, which it IS, then the opinions being heaped on them by their family, their culture, and their world, do not matter one donkey dropping in the deepest desert.
This is the Advent story we all need to know. -
A lot of stories people tell over and over take on a mythic quality. The story of the first American Thanksgiving is one of those. Happy Pilgrims and happy Indians planning out a feast of turkey and pumpkin pie is a fairy tale, not a history.
Many of the stories from scripture are the same. What we are taught isn't what you read. Sometimes the things you read are colored by your expectations and sometimes bits are skipped to make the story say what the narrator wants it to say. The REAL stories are often better, deeper, and maybe more uncomfortable...
One example is the story of King David getting involved with a woman who was the wife of one of his warriors... -
"Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!" has been a humorous non-swear swear for a long time. But who was Jehoshaphat and why was he so jumpy?
This week I'm going to tell you a story from the Old Testament which highlights the difficulty of remaining at peace during times of way and how fight or flight are not the only options. There is a third way, a choice we can each make, one that involves following the Way of the LORD.
Which way did Jehoshaphat jump and which path will you choose?
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We live in a world full of violence and pain. Our culture celebrates retribution and preemptive strikes - the destruction or at least submission of our enemies as payback for what they have (or might have) inflicted on us.
The Bible certainly contains many stories of the same kinds of struggles, of harm being done to the people of God and of their responses. Obviously, this provides a righteous path for us to respond to those who would harm us or our families or friends with the same kind of brutality and death they visited on us, right?
Our final Horror Story of the Bible for this season is one of the deep craving we have to visit the pain we feel onto those we hold responsible for it and anyone associated with them. What does God call on his people to do in the face of violence being done to them?
It may be that Old Testament vengeance isn't what you think it is.
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This week, the Return of Horror Stories from the Bible continues with a tale of ghosts or demons responding to a call from King Saul. Why would Israel's first king turn his back on the commands of God to chase after messages from the dead? And what will he do when the message he gets is not at all what he hoped?
Grab your popcorn and sit near a friend while we dig deep into this dark story from a dark time. -
It's that time of year: Horror Stories of the Bible return to help lead us up to the celebration of all the saints who came before us. Today we delve into the twisted story of a man who was able to snatch bitter defeat from the jaws of victory. While his story may burn itself into your memory, don't light a candle for him. His choices left a legacy in ashes and are to be viewed as a warning that we should sacrifice our pride, not our pride and joy.
The fact that there are multiple stories in the Bible which could fit this description should remind us all to be careful to think before we speak or act. There is always a right choice that can be made.
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Sure, the Beatitudes make a nice little framework for a life of faith in Jesus. Maybe I'll work on them sometimes, you know, like a church-related hobby. But we wouldn't want to go all in on them, would we? What would people think? We'd seem to be some kind of Jesus freaks if we did that. People might be mean to us. Some might even be angry! Jesus didn't really mean for his followers to take this stuff personally, did he?
Oh, let me tell you, he made this all VERY personal when he told us to put the salt of our lives into our manure!
Wait, what?
Join us today for salt, light, and the ninth blessing. -
Is there any way to look at being made to suffer at the hands of others that could be considered any kind of a blessing? And yet, Jesus offers us this wild saying that says we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness! What the heck is he going on about there? Has he spent too much time in the sun?
Today, we dive into this Beatitude to uncover what it means and - just as importantly! - what it DOESN'T mean. And what, exactly, it means for those of us who are trying to follow the Way of Jesus that leads us into the Kingdom of God. -
"In the real world, that stuff [that Jesus said] doesn't work."
This was said to me by a pastor friend as we discussed the importance of following the Way of Jesus as he laid it out. Our disagreement was about how we are to respond to those who are or may be trying to harm us.
That friend is no longer a pastor, which I think is probably for the best, because if a representative of Jesus doesn't believe the teaching and example of Jesus matters in "the real world" then they aren't representing Jesus, are they? I believe that the things of Jesus ARE the real world and his instructions often lead us to take positions which don't match our culture.
Like when he said that if we want to be identified as God's people, we need to make peace in all things... -
Purity and holiness sound like terribly boring religious concepts requiring us to lead dull lives enclosed in harsh boundaries, deprivation, and perfection. When we screw up, we're out, right? ZAP goes the lightning, then straight into the depths of depravity and destruction!
Yeah, that would be every bit as horrible as it sounds. Fortunately, that's not at all what the Bible means when it talks about being pure in heart! Remember that Jesus was pure in heart but his opponents got all over him for spending so much time at parties and having too much fun. So what DOES it mean and how do we get to live out the going to parties purity instead of the drudgery version? Join us for today's discussion and hear for yourself! -
Sometimes people suck, and when they do they should be held up for ridicule and contempt and mockery... Oh, wait. That's what we DO, but is that what Jesus asks of his followers? Is it the example God provides us with? Or are we supposed to find it in ourselves, somehow, to show mercy?
I suspect you already know the answer. Maybe looking at the examples Jesus gave for showing mercy will give us some hope that we might be able to learn how to do it. Or maybe we'll decide that we just don't care for that instruction and we'll stick with being unforgiving jerks who refuse mercy because we don't think some people are worthy of it.
How do you think a citizen of the Kingdom of God would act? -
Now that we've spent a few weeks talking about being blessed, let's talk about what the word BLESSED means and how it may not be exactly what we've been thinking it is.
Then let's talk about the deeper meaning of righteousness and how it's something for every one of us to embrace, not just a thing for holiness superstars. Something to consider: Being righteous doesn't come from following rules! It's based on something else entirely. Something we all want! -
Just because things rhyme, that doesn't mean they are the same. If you use a cat for a bat, you'll never get a hit, and if you wear it as a hat, you'll probably regret it. And yet we tend to mix up meekness by thinking it is a weakness when the reality is that it takes a lot more strength to live out meekness than it does to dominate, bully, or push your way over the top of anyone else.
Well then, what IS meekness? And how could we live it out, if we chose to give it a try? And what does any of this have to do with an argument about Moses having married (according to his sister) above his station? For that, I guess you'll need to join us for this week's dip into the Beatitudes of Jesus.
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Today we start with a lesson in the obvious: Life hurts. There are wounds which we need to tend to or they will fester and drive us to self-destructive means of altering or covering the pain because we just want it to stop hurting. Or the pain takes over so much that we don't realize we can feel anything else. How can there be any blessing in pain or loss or disappointment?
But maybe there is...
This week, we explore how that might work, and why we are never so alone as we think. -
What does it mean to be poor and why would Jesus claim that this is some kind of blessed state? Why do we allow anxiety to drive us to cling to things we could release? What makes THIS the thing Jesus wanted to tell his followers to learn ahead of everything else?
This week we cover the first of the Beatitudes, Jesus's instructions for life as a citizen of God's Kingdom.
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"Guard your heart," declares scripture, "for everything you do flows from it."
But what does that mean and what should we be letting in or keeping out of our hearts? It's not like Jesus left us a checklist... did he?
Welcome to the new season of The Shield Online! We're starting with a life-changing dive into what Dallas Willard called, "a curriculum for Christlikeness," the Beatitudes!
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What happened with Paul and the others? Did they get to Rome? What happened? What do we know? Did Luke wrap up all the loose ends in his story? And what does any of this mean for us in the modern world? All these questions and more are answered (and not answered) in today's message. Join us! Then maybe you'll want to go back and find the parts you may have missed.
Grace and peace to you! -
There's a little story towards the end of the book of Acts that most people slip past quickly, noticing only the unusual story about a snakebite. But this is the beginning of Luke's conclusion to the full message of the book he has written! Why is he wasting space on a little travel vignette? Or did he have a more important purpose in mind when he described the Followers of the Way living together with three different pagan groups? Find out by joining us for today's look into the Book of Acts.
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