Rabbit Holes & Meditations - Christian Bible Study

A few days ago, Glenn Beck posted a video warning built around three words: "Prepare for impact." He said it isn't something he says lightly. The last time he felt this strongly was 2007, and we all remember what happened in 2008. Here's what got his attention. Last week the British government launched a three-year national campaign called "Be Ready," asking every household to keep enough water, f...

Spiritual warfare is an active, ongoing reality across every culture, institution, and individual heart, driven by real demonic forces rather than harmless ancient myths. The book (we have the pre-release), Practical Spiritual Warfare | Fighting the Enemy of Every Nation, Every Church and Every Heart,  traces the historical origins of idolatry and false religions back to Babel, showing how human v...

Everybody has worked with this guy. He gets his two weeks’ notice, and for those two weeks he does nothing for the company that let him go. He takes the clients to lunch. He makes sure that when he lands somewhere new, the people who matter will remember him kindly. Nobody calls that loyalty. But nobody calls it stupid, either. Jesus told that story — and then His master praised the man. This may...

I had no idea that this deep dive would go down this trail. Perhaps this is a rabbit hole where you don't want to dig. I don't blame you. Ultimately I like where it landed so if you do listen, listen all the way. Don't let your curiousity lead you away from the message.  Some Other Way: What the Demons Said, and Why Seekers Are Listening DMT users report meeting the same beings again and again, ac...

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When I read that, I hear uncertainty. I hope it rains. I hope it doesn’t. But nobody says, “I hope the sun comes up tomorrow.” Nobody hopes it gets dark at night. We just know it will. I raised this in a Bible study once and I think I confused the whole class. Does he have faith or doesn’t he? I just don’t like the...

Confession: I was the guy who wrote the articles about the seeker and the wanderer. At the time, I felt I was absolutely correct. Today, I see things differently. Truth be told, that day, when I wrote those articles, was not so long ago and those old tracks, though not completely fresh, are still there. That is what today’s deep dive is about. Forging new trails. Fortunately, there is a trail blaz...

I used to think I had it all figured out. I dug into some articles I’d written in the past. They came up as I was approaching the subject matter of this podcast. In the last episode we looked the entropic decay of the natural man. In "The Science of God's Economy," we followed the laws of thermodynamics as a picture of the gospel. Left to itself, every closed system runs down. Order requires an ou...

Ok, I'll apologize ahead of time for this one. They called me vector-head (or just vector) in my college days, and I admit I haven't changed much. I don't practice engineering anymore, but you can't take the engineer out of the boy. This podcast won't appeal to all, but it hits a home run for this vector headed guy that likes to map reality onto the cosmos. I did the best I could with my limited r...

Few questions carry more weight in the life of a believer. For some it is a private fear: I keep failing in the same way. Am I still His? For others it is grief: My son professed Christ for years, and now he wants nothing to do with Him. Was he ever saved? Is he lost now? Those fears deserve an answer that comes from the text, not from a denominational slogan and not from what we wish were true. S...

I'm not going to go as far as to say this podcast will help you understand the entire arc of the bible, but I will say that it will give you some amazing insight and clarity that will make you want to listen to this podcast and read the supporting material over again to make sure you are grasping the weight of the concepts. I loved producing the podcast because it gave me such a deep sense of conf...

Baptism, the Command, and the Heart “It’s just an outward expression of faith.” Many Christians describe baptism that way, and they usually mean it’s optional. Others go the opposite direction and treat the water as if it saves on its own. Scripture rejects both views. In this episode we look at what the text actually says about baptism. We start with the meaning of the word, then the command Jesu...

I apologize in advance if sometimes this podcast seems to veer off a present trajectory but every time I do I deep dive, something sticks that makes me want to go deeper. My friends accuse me of being a walking hyperlink... guilty as charged : ) This came up in our last podcast, so I decided to return here and sit on this passage.  Most of us read straight past it. In the upper room, between Peter...

When I was a boy, raised Catholic, I would go into the confessional and come out a new kid. My mother loved confession day. We were so good, at least until the ability to resist had worn off. The instinct behind that experience is biblical. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little" (Luke 7:47). Forgiveness received produces...

Today is the final episode of our A.I. mini-series. It began with a hard question: could AI bring about the end of humanity? We didn’t choose that question as click-bait. The warning comes from the people building these systems. Some have asked whether they mean it, or whether fear simply makes good marketing. After all, nothing gets attention like the end of the world. But the alarm isn’t coming...

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost…?” (Luke 14:28) There’s a story about Joseph, Jacob’s son. God showed Pharaoh in a dream that famine was coming to the whole world, and Joseph told Pharaoh what to do: “Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land… They should collect all the food of these good years… to be held in reserve for the country...

Every magician knows the oldest trick in the trade: get the audience to watch one hand while the other does the real work. For months the AI conversation has circled one question: is AI going to end humanity? My first answer was, of course not, any more than my SUV is going to back itself out of the garage and run somebody over. Then it hit me. AI could be driving that SUV sooner than we think. We...

If you read Revelation, the End Times are about a global dominant power. Right now, we are living in a world of competing towers. I'm not sure that race is winnable for reasons we get into in the discussion. Perhaps what sticks out the most from this deep dive is this. If rivals cannot win by building the better model, they will compete for what cannot be copied: the chips, the factories that make...

What if the real threat of AI isn’t that it ends the human race, but that it changes it? Jesus said the end would come “as the days of Noe were.” So what actually happened in the days of Noah? In Part 2 we open Genesis 6 verse by verse, with the Septuagint alongside, to ask who “the sons of God” were, who the giants were, and why it matters now. Today parents can rank embryos by predicted traits,...

Today we are taking a short break from The Parables. For the next 5 podcasts, we are going to address the elephant in the room. And actually, the elephant is responding back! Let me explain. I think in the last month especially, but longer if you’re paying attention, there is growing concern that AI could end humanity. You’ve heard the fatalistic predictions. Artificial intelligence will outthink...

Walk into any Christian bookstore and you’ll find nearly as many readings of Revelation as there are readers. Most of them make the same mistake: they pick one way of reading the book (preterist, historicist, futurist, or idealist) and force every chapter to fit it. This episode takes a different approach. Instead of choosing a bucket first, we let the text tell us what kind of reading each passag...

It was never really about the prodigal. Read the first line again: A certain man had two sons. The story starts with the father. It ends with the father. And every turn in between is something the father does. He gave his living to a son who couldn’t wait for it. He let him go. He watched the road. And when that son was still a great way off, he ran. But when he was yet a great way off, his father...

Today is part 2 of a 3-part series for the Parable of The Prodigal son as most have come to know the title. We often look past the older brother in the prodigal story. Some even identify with his sentiment. If you’ve ever felt the elder brother had a point, this episode is for you. He stayed. He worked. He kept every rule. And when his brother came home from wasting everything, his father killed t...

Today is the first of a three part series on a Parable you may think you know well. The Prodigal Son is almost aways covered in a 30 minute bible study. That in no way let’s this text breath. Sit back, we’re going deep. You know this story. You probably think it ends at the party. It doesn’t. But before we get to the party, we have to go where the son went. Jesus wasn’t talking to runaways. He was...

You have never felt lost. That might be the problem. Everyone loves the lost sheep. Nobody sees himself in the lost coin. A coin doesn’t wander. It doesn’t feel the dark. It lies on a clean floor in a familiar house, perfectly content — and perfectly lost. Jesus didn’t tell this story to the runaways. He told it to the respectable men at the edge of the crowd, murmuring because He welcomed sinners...

Anyone who has lost a child in a crowded store knows the feeling. For about ninety seconds, nothing else exists. You don't care about the cart, and you don't care who's watching. Nobody could talk you into calming down and being grateful for everything you didn't lose. You search until you find, and when you find, you don't scold. You grab that kid and hold on. Jesus told a story like that, and mo...