The Bible Unplugged Podcast

Power is not only something held by governments, executives, institutions, or people with enormous platforms. Whenever we can influence, create, teach, spend, publish, persuade, encourage, withhold, or choose, we have some degree of power. In this episode, Brent explores what happens before power becomes visible in the world. Energy receives direction. Direction contributes to coherence. Coherence...

We live in a world where answers are easier to find than ever before. But having an answer is not the same thing as knowing what to do with it. In this episode of The Bible Unplugged, Brent explores the difference between information, wisdom, and discernment — and why spiritual maturity will matter even more in a future shaped by information abundance and artificial intelligence. Primary Scripture...

We are surrounded by voices competing for our attention. News wants it. Politics wants it. Advertising wants it. Social media wants it. Algorithms want it. Fear wants it. Technology can occupy as much of it as we are willing to give. The problem is bigger than simply having too much information. What repeatedly receives our attention eventually begins participating in our formation. In the last ep...

When I was in junior high school, I was assigned Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock . The warning was unsettling even then: technology and social change could begin moving faster than people were able to adapt. More than fifty years later, that future does not feel theoretical. Work changes. Technology changes. Communication changes. The way we receive information changes. Even the meaning of expertise...

The world is changing quickly. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we work, learn, communicate, create, and make decisions. Medicine is changing. Education is changing. Careers are changing. The amount of information competing for our attention continues to grow. Some of these changes will be remarkable. Some will be disruptive. Most will probably be a mixture of both. But the most import...

Ephesians 5:21–6:24 Love is easy to admire when it stays abstract. It becomes harder when it has to live inside marriage, parenting, family wounds, work responsibilities, authority, vulnerability, and spiritual pressure. Some passages of Scripture have been used to heal people. Others have been used to control them. Ephesians 5 and 6 require careful handling because Paul is not giving permission f...

Ephesians 4:17–5:21 Most spiritual formation does not happen in dramatic moments. It happens in ordinary reactions. What we say when we are frustrated. What we do with anger. Whether we forgive. What we desire. How we use time. What fills us. That is where Paul takes us in Ephesians 4 and 5. In the first half of Ephesians 4, Paul showed us a body growing up together into Christ. Now he shows us wh...

Ephesians 4:1–16 Some believers want spiritual growth without relational formation. We want to become more spiritual, but not always more patient. We want to know more Scripture, but not always become gentler with people. We want to grow in faith, but not always learn how to walk with others who think differently, move differently, grieve differently, vote differently, worship differently, or carr...

Ephesians 3:14–21 A tree can look healthy for a season above the ground. The leaves may be green. The branches may stretch outward. From a distance, everything can seem strong and alive. But if the roots are shallow, the first hard storm reveals the problem. The tree does not fall because it had no leaves. It falls because it did not have enough depth. That happens in the spiritual life too. A per...

Ephesians 2:1–22 Most of us know what it feels like to be outside looking in. Maybe you were not included in the conversation. Maybe you did not know the rules everyone else seemed to know. Maybe you walked into a church, a family, a workplace, or a room full of people and felt small, separate, and unseen. Being far off is more than distance. It can become a way of seeing yourself. I do not belong...

w they are safe in the love of God. TBU 99 — Eyes Opened to Resurrection Power Love Beyond Measure | Ephesians 1:15–23 Have you ever had a moment when nothing around you changed, but the way you saw it changed? The circumstances were the same. The problem was still there. The grief had not disappeared. The pressure had not lifted. But something changed inside you. You could breathe again. You coul...

What happens to a person who believes love must be earned? That question sits underneath this opening episode of our new Love Beyond Measure series on The Bible Unplugged . Many people live with the quiet assumption that love has to be maintained by performance. Good behavior earns approval. Failure creates distance. Effort keeps us acceptable. And without realizing it, we can carry that same patt...

TBU 97 — The Mind of Christ Seeing, Choosing, and Living Differently The mind of Christ does not make us less human. It makes us more fully alive to God. That matters because sometimes we hear spiritual language as though it takes us away from ordinary life. We imagine the mind of Christ as a private religious experience, reserved for worship services, Bible studies, prayer closets, or moments whe...

Most of us know what it feels like to want to change and still feel pulled toward old patterns. We say, “I am not going to react that way anymore,” and then react before we even have time to think. We recognize a habit, a fear, a resentment, or an old story, and still feel its pull. That can be discouraging. When change does not happen quickly, we may assume we are not trying hard enough. Or we ma...

Anxiety pulls us apart. That may be one of the most honest ways to describe what anxiety does inside the soul. It does not only make us nervous. It divides our attention. Part of us is here, trying to live the day in front of us. Another part is somewhere in the future, trying to manage a problem that has not happened yet. Part of us wants to trust God. Another part is rehearsing every reason we m...

Not every thought deserves a throne. A thought can enter the mind without being true. A fear can feel powerful without being prophetic. An accusation can sound convincing without coming from God. A memory can be real and still not be allowed to define the future. Some thoughts need attention. Some need compassion. Some need prayer. Some need wise examination. But not every thought deserves authori...

What You Pay Attention To Becomes Your Direction Attention is never neutral. What we set our minds on slowly sets our direction. A fear we keep rehearsing begins to shape the way we see the future. A wound we keep replaying begins to shape the way we see other people. A truth we keep returning to begins to form a new center within us. That is why Scripture takes the mind so seriously. Not because...

Most of us are being shaped more than we realize. We like to think our thoughts are entirely our own. We like to think our fears, reactions, desires, and assumptions simply rise up from inside us. But all of us are being formed. We are formed by the culture around us, by the families we came from, by the stories we have believed, and by the pressures we have learned to call normal. The world is al...

What Grace Looks Like in Real Life What does a life shaped by grace actually look like? Not in theory. Not in a sermon. Not in moments of spiritual intensity. But in ordinary life. Many people imagine strength as loud certainty, constant productivity, or the ability to push through pressure without slowing down. But the strongest people often look different. They remain peaceful under pressure. Ki...

What Grace Looks Like in Real Life What does a life shaped by grace actually look like? Not in theory. Not in a sermon. Not in moments of spiritual intensity. But in ordinary life. Many people imagine strength as loud certainty, constant productivity, or the ability to push through pressure without slowing down. But the strongest people often look different. They remain peaceful under pressure. Ki...

When God Writes on the Human Heart Most people think spiritual growth happens mainly through effort. Try harder. Do better. Follow the rules more consistently. But through the prophet Jeremiah, God makes a startling promise: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”—Jeremiah 31:33 In this episode of The Bible Unplugged , we explore one of the most important covenant pro...

The Love That Will Not Let You Go There are questions many believers carry quietly. What if I fail again? What if I’m not strong enough? What if something separates me from God? In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul answers those fears with one of the most powerful declarations in all of Scripture: “Nothing… will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In this epis...

There are moments when prayer feels difficult. Not because you don’t care…but because you don’t have the words. You try to pray, but nothing comes. Or what you feel is deeper than anything you can express. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul speaks directly into that experience. “The Spirit also helps our weaknesses… for we don’t know how to pray as we ought.” (Romans 8:26) In this episode of The Bible...

Why the Whole World Is Watching the Children of God Most of us think of salvation as something personal. Our faith. Our relationship with God. Our future. But in Romans 8, the Apostle Paul says something much bigger. “The creation waits with eager expectation for the revealing of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19) Creation is waiting. The world is watching. In this episode of The Bible Unplugged...

Grace Is the Beginning, Not the Reward Many Christians spend much of their lives feeling like they are almost there with God. Almost faithful enough. Almost disciplined enough. Almost spiritual enough. If they could just pray a little more…understand the Bible a little better…become more consistent… Then maybe God would finally be pleased with them. But the Apostle Paul says something that complet...