Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

I'm still traveling.  These podcasts may not drop at our regularly scheduled time. What should I do when God shows me something?  Let's look today at the wondering shepherds.  What do you do after 'the angel has left?' and you are sitting there with a unit of revelation? Wonder= Pondering with your HEART Pondering=Wondering with your HEAD Wondering + Pondering = TREASURING. Thi...

I'm traveling so episode drops might be delayed.  Keep listening. Angel arrive today with cat hair on their socks.  That is, they bring something with them that tells us where they have been.  They bring...wait for it...glory.  Glory is: the character or characteristics of GOD emanating.  So these ANGELS come with glory.  Not with angel glory, but with God Glory.  It tells us something.  it t...

We are dropped today into the original CRISIS PREGNANCY.  Joseph responds BRAVELY.   political crisis and compelling geographic stress/travel with pregnant woman distance from Mary's family  geographic proximity/relational distance from Joseph's family immanent delivery of full term baby with out help sexual intimacy naiveté, childbirth inexperience In all of this God chooses to come dow...

So Mary shows up 4 months pregnant after a trip to visit her aunt Elizabeth.  Joseph has a major decision node of his life: a.  Have Mary publicly stoned to death b. quietly divorce her c. marry her but don't have sex with her for another 5 months, knowing you will be bearing 50+% of her shame; knowing you might not be invited to Thanksgiving dinner ever again; and for sure knowing the neighb...

Some folks don't believe the Bible because of the Virgin Birth.  They make fun of it.  They specifically don't believe because of it. Hilarious, says I! In just 8 verses today, the Virgin Birth is the FOURTH most miraculous thing in the passage!  That's right, there are much bigger things NOT to believe in if you are so inclined.  It serves notice that there is a lot of miracle goin...

1. Sex is important 2. God invented it 3. God is pretty jazzed about it 4.  You should be too 5. When is the  WHEN to sex? 6.  WHO should I have sex with? We have sexual agency to do not ANYthing, but to do the RIGHT thing.  Today's passage emphasizes the WHEN question big time.  When is the right time for sex?   If you have got 7 minutes... Maybe you haven't done this area of life perfe...

Someday, God will call His last pastor on earth.  Why?  Because we won't need them anymore. Their jobs will be done.  He Himself will be our full-time shepherd after the second coming.  Today, God calls His last prophet.  It is John the Baptist.  There are no more after him.  The job of all who held that office is accomplished.  The way had been prepared.   The image that the Lord gives today...

Sometimes you need the strength of a bull .  Sometimes you need to knock a few things down. Sometimes you need to defend with power. Sometimes you need to destroy with violence Sometimes you need to celebrate that you are on the BULL'S Team Lord you are the HORN OF MY SALVATION . We will celebrate the BULLS , not the riders of the PBR: Professional Bull Riders.  In fact I couldn't even t...

Has the Lord ever given you 278 days to reconsider your position? What if He sent you into a sort-of self isolation for that time when you couldn't speak and couldn't hear.  What if you had all that time between your own ears and only your own ears to think about something that you got wrong the first time. This is what we see with Zechariah, who is deaf and mute for 278 days before he i...

Are you hungry today, that is, of your SOUL?  Is your spirit longing a bit for your Maker?  If so, have I got a God for you. Mary leads us on today with here great praise prayer of Luke 1.  He has looked. He is mighty. He has done.  He is holy. He is faithful. He has faithfulness to the ungrateful (hesed from the Old Testament). He exhalts the humble.  My favorite today: He fills the hungry (soul)...

The awe-stonishing thing isn't that mankind and womankind looks to God.  The truly awe-stonishing thing is that HE LOOKS TO US. He does look.  And, He looks to US.  Mary worships about this very concept today. But what if God did NOT LOOK?  What are the implications?  Would this be a world that you'd want to live in?  No holding of the world together, no orbits, no sunrise, no birds, no...

Mary is a spiritual rock star.  You have THE essential ingredient that she does: a SOUL. You know, the seat of your decisions, words, understanding and will. Your soul is fantastic, amazing, and is to be celebrated.  But here's the rub: you did not make your soul.  That should stop you in your tracks.  It did to me today. Suddenly, the large, personally important footprint of my soul is viewe...

What makes MARY so special? Her relative Elizabeth tells us the basics:  Blessed is She who believes. Now Elizabeth was no stranger to this.  Her husband had THE SAME angel visit him 6 months earlier.  He did not believe the angel.  His question betrayed his unbelief.   Therefore, for the last 6 months, 5 of which "she kept herself hidden" probably at home alone with Zechariah. Don'...

An angel is opening a gift to Mary and the world.  He is describing some of the 'who is Jesus' questions that you may have. Jesus is proclaimed now to be occupying the office of the 'throne of David'.  This was promised about a 1000 years previous to this to David who wanted to build God a nice house.  God turns the tables and says to David, 'no, I am going to build YOU a...

Gabriel comes to give the triple reveal of pregnancy of Mary: that you are pregnant (miraculously) that the gender is male that He already has a name (but you are the first to know it) Mary is knocked off her game.  She is DISTURBED: deeply troubled, confused So here is the big question for today, what does she do with the DISTURB?   We are sobered here because Zechariah, Gabriel's last assig...

Zechariah, though he is earlier described as a righteous man, betrays himself by a question.  The question seems innocent enough, but we get an angelic clarification.  The angel just calls him out definitively:  you did NOT BELIEVE MY WORDS. This is to a faithful, chosen, professional priest, who has stood the test of time.  If you wanna know, the question is on the surface pretty 'innocent.&...

The Gospel of Luke starts with the birth of a child.  IT'S NOT JESUS.  Surprise. Surprise.   We get the prequel to Jesus' birth by the story of John the Baptist's PARENTS.  They are a couple of good people that were dealing with the bad thing of barrenness.  It is not because of sin, it is for the sovereignty.  Certainly they didn't have the end of the story here at the beginni...

Matthew gives us the family history at the arrival of Jesus.  It is a record of the legal claim that family members have to the bounty of the riches that Jesus brings.  This is a family that Jesus attaches himself to, and by extension, we are attached to.  With it come rights, and benefits, and inheritances, and power, and offices.  Ultimately, you want to be a part of this.  It is like the readin...

God comes to us in a certain way.   Why? Because we need it. Absent Him, what answer do we have for sin? How? Flesh had to do it. Our flesh couldn't do it and fulfill all the righteous requirements.  Moses reminded us of that. He comes in the flesh. This fulfills prophesy and fixes problems. Where?  He pitches His tent in my backyard.  He comes close.  He dwells among me and us.  He moves int...

If I knew this day was going to be so important, I would have paid more attention! Does anybody wake up and know that later on today, I am going to yield my heart, believe in all that I know about God, trust Him that He's true, and receive all that He did to remedy a great big sin problem? does anyone's list look like: Walk the dog go grocery shopping pay credit card bill practice piano...

After the introduction of Jesus as eternal, creative, creator, life-giver, light-giver and darkness fighter, we today hear a few words about mankind. I suppose some is good.  Hey, He uses us as messengers primarily, rather than angels or something. But mostly, we hear about offense.  We hear about us not receiving Him.  We hear about the "yet..." in the passage.  How can this be?!  I was...

Podcaster + Revelation of God Himself = Big dose of HUMBLE PIE. John does not start his gospel in a small way.  There is creation, creator, sustainer, Word-naming, Jesus=God, originator of stuff, originator of life and epic battle-doer of dark and light. God is making Himself manifest here.  In a big way.  In a BIG way.  We will start the sipping of spiritual experiences and spiritual truth and sp...

Welcome to Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder.  If you are new to the podcast, you are starting in the best place.   We are on a sequential walk through Jesus' life as detailed in the gospels.  The real story starts here.  Season 4 is actually the start of the story .  The order is actually season 4 then 1,2,3.   So, you are in exactly the right place.  What kind of a knucklehead would...

Pastor Knute Larson will help us understand the third biggest question of all-time:  Why is there pain?  How should we handle our pain ?  How should we handle other’s pain ?  When will all of this be over?  Do Christians have problems and suffering?   We will learn how Pastors handle that painful phone call.  Thank you Lord, for giving us Pastors. Mike Singletary will make a verbal appearance from...

Pastor Knute Larson joins Be With Me for 7 minutes as he explains the importance of 59 seconds .  He is known for the MINUTE-SPOT , a 59 second TV segment that went city-wide and drew in the curious.  He did hundreds of them. Nobody ever did it better.  Historically, they actually started on the radio in 1966 in Ashland, Ohio.  He’ll tell us how it all got started and why those first few seconds a...