All tagged miracles

437 Daily Life—Fighting Spirit vs Resting Spirit

The Scriptures are full of admonitions both to fight for the Lord and his ways and to rest in the Lord. But what does that look like in everyday life? When to fight? When to rest? And even worse for everyday-Sunday believers, what to do when a syrypy-goo is poured thick over all that?! We talk through everyday realities between the poles of fighting and resting, then we also ask what it means to fight (or whether to fight) for the health of culture and sign. On the one hand we're called to be gracious (which gets corrupted to mean "we must be nice!"). On the other hand we're called to be faithful. What did seizing the problem mean for Mark as a mailman? What did seizing the problem mean for Ed as a professor? What did Dietrich Bonhoeffer have to say about what it means to be a Christian in the midst of a fracasso? Come think and laugh with us!

394 Jesus said. . . That?! (9) You Gotta Have Faith to Move Mountains

"If you had the faith of a mustard seed you could say to that mountain, 'be cast into the sea,' and it would be done for you," Jesus said three different times in the Gospels. Across my life that is one of the more terrifying phrases Jesus ever uttered, and that's why I take more time than in most of my shows to address the particularities. In the literary and historical context what did Jesus mean? What was he addressing? What was he saying about himself inside of those contexts? Why did he say such loud things? I also address the common pastoral take-away from these passages: our having enough faith. How much faith is enough? What is faith? What usually happens among Christians with application of this "faith to move mountains" phrase? In the show's cultural reflection I talk, again, about transhumanism. This time about how transhumanism is making inroads into culture and why some unspeakable eventualities lay on the threshold of history for us.

243 Suffering (11) Does Evil Outweigh God's Goodness?

Discussions of evil and suffering usually focus on the horror and quantity of suffering. But life is, across the planet, about more than horror and anguish. Too often we neglect the wonders God daily rains upon us, we ignore the magic of life's fabric. In this episode I put evil into life's larger framework. We also explore the intentional policies of the current whitehouse. We're told poor ol' Joe can't catch a break. But is that really what's going on?

186 The Virgin Birth, Why Does it Matter?

What does the New Testament teach us about the virginal conception of Jesus? Was the event God-initiated or Mary-initiated? What are some theological ramifications of his birth, especially for being human? What did the very first Christians believe about all of that? Why does it matter today? And what, especially, seems to prevent belief in Jesus' birth today?