Before the Lord

Not many in Scripture suffered more than Paul — beaten, imprisoned, hunted — yet he wrote the Bible’s most joyful letter, Philippians, from a prison cell. In this episode, Blake opens 2 Corinthians 8 and asks how Paul found such deep, durable joy in the middle of such suffering. The answer: we are never more like Jesus — who loved and bled — than when we suffer, and that nearness to Him carries a...

It’s natural to avoid pain and chase pleasure — but when that drive outruns our love for God, it quietly becomes idolatry. In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 4:23 (“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”) and names the hidden machinery beneath so much of what we do: the shadow mission, a wounded heart’s plan to find life apart from God, and the adaptations — t...

Colossians 3:23-24 quietly rewires how you see your whole day: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” In this episode, Blake widens the word “work” to cover nearly everything we do — job, service, parenting, even our walk with God — and asks why Paul adds that pointed phrase, “and not for men.” The answer exposes a trap: human approval is fleeting and never satisfied —...

We spend so much energy on how things look on the outside — but God has always been after the heart. In this episode, Blake opens Matthew 5:8 and Psalm 34:18 to ask a searching question: what kind of heart does God actually seek? Scripture gives two answers that belong together — a heart that is pure and a heart that is broken. A pure heart, Blake explains, isn’t a flawless one but an undivided on...

What is the “old self,” what is the “new self,” and what does it actually mean to “put on” the new one? In this episode, Blake opens Ephesians 4 and walks through Paul’s sobering picture of life without Christ, the radical transformation of the new self, and the truth many miss — that you don’t manufacture a new self, you receive it. It’s the fruit of a new birth, a new heart only God can give (Ez...

It’s difficult to be content in every situation — and Paul knew it. In this episode, Blake opens Philippians 4:11-13, where Paul says he “learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,” and shows how Paul took the Greco-Roman ideal of self-sufficiency and flipped it: his contentment wasn’t built on needing nothing, but on complete dependence on Christ. Blake gets honest about how discontentment h...

Silver doesn’t become valuable by what’s added to it, but by what’s removed. In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 25:4-5 — “take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel” — and unpacks a truth we’d rather avoid: what you eliminate from your life is just as important as what you include. Refinement comes through subtraction. Blake looks at how God, the patient Refine...

James doesn’t pull punches: “Your gold and silver are corroded… this corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you.” In this episode, Blake looks at James 5:3 — first at its sharp warning to the hoarding rich, then at the principle underneath it that reaches every one of us: everything we have is a gift, and a gift kept to itself corrodes instead of blessing. Blake widens “hoarding”...

Wisdom is one prayer away — but most of us save prayer for the big decisions and handle the rest on autopilot. In this episode, Blake sits with James 1:5: “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.” God offers His wisdom generously, without a hint of reproach, for every circumstance, big and small. Blake unpacks why asking doesn’t come naturally — we’re used to handling...

We live in a culture that rewards action — fix it, resolve it, make it happen. But in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul offers a humbling correction: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” In this episode, Blake unpacks what it means to do your part faithfully and leave the results to God, instead of getting ahead of Him. Blake looks at how trying to force our own growth is like tugging on a s...

“Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me.” Years ago, the Lord used a painful experience to expose a pride Blake didn’t know he had. In this episode he tells the story — being ordained a deacon, feeling like he’d finally arrived, and then losing it all in a church conflict — and what God taught him through the collapse. Blake gets honest about how spiritual achievement can quietly become a subs...

For years, I read Proverbs 22:3 — “the prudent sees danger and hides himself” — as a warning about temptation. But recently he came to see it from a harder, more personal angle: what if the danger also includes harm done to you? This episode is about the courage to step back from a relationship that’s slowly wearing you down. Today we walk through how to tell a hard-but-healthy relationship from a...

"Be still, and know that I am God." We usually reach for Psalm 46:10 as comfort in a storm — and it is that. But in this episode, Blake shares how putting his phone down for a few days opened up a fresh reading of the verse: as I set aside the technology, I picked up the Lord. Blake digs into the Hebrew word behind "be still" (raphah — to let go, to cease striving), shows how t...

Have you ever weighed in on something — sure you were right — only to learn later you didn't have the full story? In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 18:13 and James 1:19 on a habit that trips up even the most mature believers: forming opinions, taking sides, and passing judgment before we've heard the whole thing. Using Potiphar in Genesis 39 — who threw Joseph in prison without ever he...

What does it actually mean to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”? In this episode, Blake opens Colossians 1:10 — a verse he once marked with a question mark in the margin — and unpacks the rich biblical picture of the Christian “walk”: a whole life, shaped by the Lord from the inside out, that reflects His conduct and character. Blake traces the many walks of Scripture — by faith, humbly, in th...

Why is gossip so hard to resist? In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 18:8 — the words of a whisperer are like “delicious morsels” — to unmask gossip as a relational counterfeit: it feels like connection, but it's empty, always needing more to sustain itself, and it harms everyone it touches — the one who spreads it, the one who listens, and the one talked about. Blake looks at what Scripture...

Timothy was a gifted young leader — and he was letting fear get the better of him. In this episode, Blake walks through 2 Timothy chapter 1, where Paul hands his fearful friend five encouragements to stop shrinking back and step forward in faith. The five: a praying friend; a God-given gift (and that famous line — God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline); a holy c...

Psalm 37 comes about as close to a formula as Scripture gets: trust, delight, commit — and He will act. In this episode, Blake opens Psalm 37:3-5 and walks through the three, while guarding against the trap of turning them into a lever we pull to make God move. Along the way, Blake shares the strange grace of praying for something so long that one day you realize you're already standing in the...

Who in their right mind rejoices in suffering? The Apostle Paul did — beaten, jailed, and driven from town after town, yet full of joy. In this episode, Blake opens Colossians 1:24 to ask what Paul saw that we so often miss. First, a careful word on that puzzling phrase, “filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions” — Paul is not saying Jesus's work fell short. Then Blake walks thro...

What does it mean to be a “helper fit for him”? In this companion to the episode on masculinity, Blake opens Genesis 2:18 and reclaims a word we've made too small: ezer — the very term Scripture uses of God Himself when He comes to rescue His people. A helper isn't a lesser partner; she's a strong ally, placed alongside to strengthen the good God is doing in the men she loves. Blake ge...

What is a man for? In this episode, Blake opens Genesis 2:15 — the man placed in the garden "to work it and keep it" — to unpack a masculine strength that isn't about dominating, but blessing: a man made to move into the hard, chaotic places of life and bring order, beauty, and life out of them, the way God Himself moves into the formless dark of Genesis 1. Blake gets practical — ste...

Have you ever noticed that the harder you fight not to think about something, the more it takes over? Temptation works the same way. In this episode, Blake opens Colossians 3:1-2 with a better way to fight it — not more willpower, but turning your eyes, the instant the pull hits, to Christ. Using the picture of target fixation — you steer toward whatever you stare at — Blake unpacks how fixating o...

Proverbs 20:7 draws a straight line between a parent's integrity and a child's blessing — and it starts with a sobering truth: our kids are watching everything. In this episode, Blake looks at how faith is really handed down, not through lectures but through a life children can see up close. He gets honest about his own home — including going to each of his children to ask their forgivenes...

Most of us don't enjoy confrontation — for many, it's a real fear. Blake opens up about a friendship that quietly strained until his friend did the hard, humble thing and reached out first. In this episode, he turns to Matthew 5:23-24, where Jesus puts reconciliation ahead of worship and tells us plainly: go, and be reconciled. The one who moves first isn't necessarily the one who was...

On December 11, 2012, Blake wrote down a line from his friend and mentor Scott Engelman: “Jesus went to people searching for God; He didn't focus on people content with life.” In this episode, he opens 1 Chronicles 16:11 to ask a question comfort makes easy to dodge — if Jesus walked through your ordinary week, would He find you searching for Him, or content without Him? There's a contentm...