The Waking up to Grace Podcast

Today, we take a deep dive into Paul's letter to the Romans, exploring its profound message about identity in Christ and the apostleship of Paul. We discuss the significance of being a bondservant, the transformation of Paul from persecutor to apostle, and the implications of receiving grace amid our calling. • Introduction to the new study on Romans   • Understanding the significance of Paul...

Paul’s exploration of tradition and community within the letter to the Romans invites us to reflect on our own practices in today’s churches. As we dissect historical context and early church dynamics, we emphasize the importance of participation and unity in worship.   • Reflections on Christmas demonstrating the impact of traditions   • Introduction to the relevance of Paul’s letter to early chu...

Join us as we explore the deep connections between rhetoric, argumentation, and faith in Paul's letters to the Romans. This episode discusses the importance of effective communication in the early church and encourages listeners to engage openly with scripture and one another for deeper spiritual growth. • Introduction to the study on Romans   • Emphasis on the significance of personal reflec...

The gospel of grace frees us from religious systems that create a hyper-awareness of sin while offering conditional acceptance with God through rule-keeping. • The love of Christ, not religious obligation, is what truly controls and transforms us • Paul teaches that those in Christ are new creations, with old things passed away and new things come • Christians are given the ministry of reconciliat...

We explore the profound difference between bearing fruit through legalism versus bearing fruit through grace, unpacking what it truly means to "abide in Christ" and how this transforms our spiritual fruitfulness. • Understanding what it means to abide in Christ through grace, not self-effort • How the commands of law ("love your neighbor as yourself") differ from the commands o...

The blueberry bush in Lenny's garden mirrors many Christians today - alive but not bearing fruit or growing properly. When spiritual fruit is absent despite apparent life, something essential is missing from our spiritual nourishment. • Hebrews 5 speaks of believers who should have matured to teaching others but remain spiritual infants • The early Hebrew Christians traded walking in Christ&a...

We celebrate and explore what Scripture really teaches about body, soul, and spirit, clearing away philosophical concepts that have muddied our understanding of these biblical terms. • Spirit (pneuma) represents our attitude or mindset rather than a ghostly entity • The Spirit of God reveals truth to us that human wisdom cannot grasp • When Christians were "of one heart and soul" in Acts...

Our connection with Christ mirrors our earthly relationships—feeling distant despite physical closeness happens when we lose focus and turn to unbelief rather than faith. Christ remains perfectly faithful even when we waver, because we are one with Him and He cannot deny Himself. • The feeling of distance in marriage relationships provides insight into spiritual disconnection • Christ is the perfe...

We explore the true meaning of fellowship in Christ, challenging the common misconception that fellowship equals church attendance or following a specific set of rules or teaching. • Fellowship is not something we do but something inherent in our identity in Christ • Many Christians focus on where they go to church rather than a genuine spiritual connection with other believers • The Corinthian ch...

We explore the transformative journey of casting anxiety onto God and finding peace through complete dependency on Christ. Through powerful personal stories and biblical insights, we uncover how pride often prevents us from experiencing the freedom that comes with genuine surrender to God's care. • A moving story about my father-in-law's resilience and humor through life-threatening illn...

We trace a missed Sunday service to a bigger truth about timing, covenant, and how to read Scripture without confusion. Through Hebrews and Luke 21, we argue the Old Covenant age ended with the fall of the temple, and the New Covenant now defines our life in Christ. • daylight savings story as a metaphor for God’s time change • Hebrews on the temple as symbolic for the present age • the New Covena...

We explore how misunderstanding biblical context leads to "spiritual sleepwalking" - practicing self-effort religion instead of resting in Christ's finished work. This common mistake occurs when we fail to recognize which covenant was operating during Jesus's earthly teachings. • Most Christians unknowingly read Jesus's teachings without recognizing He spoke to people unde...

We use a water skiing analogy to illustrate how many Christians struggle with legalism, hanging on to self-effort instead of trusting in Christ's finished work. The key to living by grace is letting go of trying to please God through our own efforts and starting fresh with true dependence on Him. • Identifying the disease of legalism plaguing the church in every age • Understanding when the N...

We clean the smudged lenses of your "gospel glasses" to help you see who you truly are in Christ and break free from the false teaching that you need to work to maintain fellowship with God. • Mainstream teachings wrongly tell us sin breaks our fellowship with God and requires our efforts to restore • Like a dentist with dirty glasses, we cannot properly see ourselves or our relationship...

Christ has made his way back into humanity through believers, and Christians are quite literally how Jesus continues to live his life in our world today. • Understanding our identity as temples where Christ dwells • Transitioning from being slaves to sin to slaves to righteousness • Why sin creates internal conflict for Christians • The limitation of self-effort in overcoming sin • How God's...

Today’s episode centers on the fundamental identity of Christians as new creations in Christ rather than merely having a positional status. We challenge the misconceptions surrounding positional salvation by illustrating how true grace transforms lives, empowering believers to live in the fullness of their relationship with God through Christ. • Exploring our identity in Christ as a new creation ...

We uncover how a commonly misinterpreted passage in Hebrews 12 has caused most of the Christian world to stumble into a wrong view of God and His relationship with believers. • Examining Hebrews 12:4-6 where God "disciplines" and "chastises" those He loves • Exploring how proper hermeneutics requires interpreting all scripture through the gospel lens • Tracing how the Greek wor...

Understanding our reconciliation with God through Christ is the foundation for living responsibly as Christians in a world where God is sovereign yet our choices matter. We explore the paradox of complete dependence on God while taking meaningful action in our daily lives. • The spiritual infant analogy – just as newborns depend completely on parents, we depend fully on God • Our actions affect ot...

Main Thesis Lenny argues that God does not punish Christians. Distinction is drawn between punishment (a penalty for past sins, which Christ absorbed fully) and discipline (future-oriented training for growth). The episode asserts that viewing God as an angry punisher contradicts the New Covenant gospel of grace, where believers are fully reconciled and no longer have their sins counted against th...

Main Thesis Part 2 argues that the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16) is a parable filled with symbolism regarding the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, rather than a literal description of the afterlife or Hell. Key Points: The Nature of Sheol/Hades: Lenny contends that the Hebrew Sheol (translated as Hades in Greek) simply refers to the grave or the state of death where t...

Main Thesis Lenny argues that the traditional concept of "Hell" as a place of eternal, conscious torture is a misunderstanding of Scripture caused by mistranslations and a lack of historical context. Instead, the text posits that the wicked face literal destruction (annihilation) and death, while eternal life is a gift reserved only for believers. Key Points: Gehenna vs. Hell: The episod...

Main Thesis Lenny proposes a non-mainstream theological view that the Letter of James may have been written during Jesus’ earthly ministry , prior to the Cross, Resurrection, and Pentecost. The episode argues that understanding this timeline is crucial to interpreting the letter's strong focus on works and the Law. Key Arguments Historical Context: The letter is addressed solely to the "...

The Mystery of James The episode begins by highlighting the unique and often controversial nature of the Letter of James. Lenny points out five distinct characteristics, most notably that the letter never mentions the finished work of Christ (the Cross and Resurrection), refers to the law as the "law of liberty," and is addressed exclusively to the "twelve tribes in the dispersion&q...

In this study of 1 John 5, Lenny emphasizes that the Christian walk is based on regeneration and God’s work within the believer, rather than self-effort or legalistic rule-keeping. Key takeaways include: Faith and Obedience: Loving God and keeping His commandments are not burdensome tasks performed to earn salvation; rather, they are the effortless result of being "born of God" and letti...

We walk line by line through 1 John 4 to connect discernment with love, showing why testing the spirits begins with confessing Jesus come in the flesh and ends with confidence instead of fear. Along the way, we revisit Cain and Abel, expose counterfeit gospels, and rest in the new creation promise. • aim to build confidence in reading New Covenant letters • Cain and Abel as a pattern for false rig...