BeachCast.TV: Bible Exploration, Apologetics and Church History with Dr. Chase A. Thompson:

A shout out to my old friend Cortney Johnson of Alabama who has asked an excellent question about healing based on yesterday's Mark 8 passage. Lord willing, I plan on grappling with that question during tomorrow's episode #38. Unfortunately, it's a pretty hard question, so I might have to phone a friend. I hope Dr. Wayne Grudem is not still sore at me for rolling his yard a few years ago. ;) Today...

Today we are continuing in our discussion of suffering and are concluding our brief and barely more than shallow answer of the question: Why do bad things happen to comparatively good people. We will be reading Job 4, and enduring the dumb and wrong-headed advice of one of Job's well-meaning (but misguided!) friends. We will also read Mark 8, where Jesus miraculously feeds the 4,000 AND teaches Hi...

Our reading passages for today are Genesis 36 and 37, Job 3, Mark 7 and Romans 7. In Genesis we get to read a very long list of Esau's relatives, which isn't the most inspiring chapter in the Bible, but we also meet Joseph in Genesis 37, a man of God who will become one of the more inspiring characters in the Bible. Job 3 sees Job finally talking after a week of silence (and the scraping of his bo...

Today and tomorrow, for the first time in the long and storied 34 day history of this podcast, we are going to do a two-part episode. The reason for this is that we are going to grapple together with a big question that has vexed the hearts of humans for thousands of years: Why does suffering happen? This question is quite apropos for today's Bible readings (and for tomorrow's reading also), so it...

Today's episode is rated pg-13, and that is a first for us. Of course, I am being a little tongue in cheek by using such a rating, but what I am trying to communicate is that the subject matter isn't necessarily for children - not my discussion, but the passage that we are reading. For our readings today, we are in Genesis 34, a very upsetting passage in which Dinah, daughter of Jacob is raped. Th...

Happy February! Today we are reading Genesis 33 - Jacob finally meets Esau face to face. Will there be blood? We are also reading Esther 9-10, though chapter 10 is one of the shorter chapters in the Bible. Romans 4 discusses the beautiful truth of justification by faith (and not works!), and normally that would almost certainly be our focus passage, but Mark 4 contains what I believe is the most i...

Welcome to episode #31 of the Bible Reading Podcast. Today's passages are Esther 8, in which Esther and Mordecai save the Jews from Haman's edict; Mark 3 and the calling together of Jesus' 12 disciples and Romans 3, in which we learn that absolutely nobody is able to achieve God's standards in and of themselves. Our focus passage for the day shifts back to Genesis and our old friend Jacob "The Goa...

Today's Bible passages feature the incredible absurdities of Jacob (and his sneaky wife Rachel!) in Genesis 31, some very satisfying comeuppance for the antisemite Haman in Esther 7, and Jesus healing, forgiving, and calling a seemingly ignoble tax-collector to His team of disciples in Mark 2. Romans 2 is our focus passage of the day, and it is all about hypocrisy and its dangers. Even though the...

So I got an interesting letter this week from a friend of the podcast, and boy oh boy, is he in a mess! Let me read it to you, and see if you might have any ideas how to help my friend: Dear random podcast host, My name is Yacov Ben Yiṣḥāq, and I have a problem I'm hoping that you can help me with. It is fairly complicated, but it all started when I stole the blessing of the firstborn from my mean...

Welcome into episode 28 - we are now four weeks into doing a daily Bible podcast. Thank you to those who have been here since the beginning all those many days ago and welcome aboard to any newcomers. As a reminder - our goal is to be in God's Word daily and encourage others to do the same. No need to go back and read yesterday's readings, unless you just have the time to do that and want to. Plea...

Today's passages are quite heavy in many ways. In Genesis 28, Jacob is sent away from his family (and his elder brother who, understandably, wants to kill him) to go find a wife and raise a family. Esther 4 sees Queen Esther contemplating risking her life by approaching the King and asking for him to somehow stop the slaughter of the Jews that he has already sanctioned. In Acts 27, Paul is bound f...

Welcome to episode #26 of the Bible Reading podcast! We've made it through 25 episodes, which I think is a bit of a milestone. I hope this pod is an encouragement to you, and that it helps to drive you towards daily Bible reading. One of my motivations for continuing to do the show is your comments, reviews on iTunes, emails, and when you share the show on social media. As a podcaster, that is ver...

Hello everybody! We now have a FACEBOOK PAGE! Please 'Like' and 'Share' it, so that I can make millions of dollars podcasting, and become a dark Jedi quadrillionaire, or something like that. Today's reading is in Genesis 26 (Isaac and Rebekah), Esther 2 (Esther becomes the Persian Queen), Acts 25 (Paul, still on trial, appeals to Caesar), and Matthew 25 - Jesus' call to the least of these. I belie...

Good news! Today's episode has no discussion of dung or thighs, or anything at all untoward. Bad news! Today's topic - Eschatology/The End Times/The Last Days might just be more controversial! Our focus passage today is Matthew 24, and I consider this to be the longest and clearest teaching in the Bible on eschatology and the return of Jesus. Most people want to begin with Revelation when discussi...

Today we are reading through Genesis 24, Nehemiah 13, Matthew 23 and Acts 23. Yesterday's discussion topic included dung, and today's discussion topic is also a little questionable, but the prayer part is going to have some great encouragements from lots of people, including our old friend Charles Spurgeon, so stick around for that. Maybe tomorrow's reading won't have anything in it that would mak...

If this podcast were written and recorded by my precious wife, it would be vastly different - more sober-minded, serious, and a good bit shorter. It would have the same Scripture passages, but you would never have an episode about cavemen and dung. However, this podcast is not by my wife, so today's episode is on cavemen and dung. I suppose it is a bit silly headed of me to attempt to tackle three...

Today marks three straight weeks of doing DAILY episodes of the Bible Reading Podcast. I've literally been podcasting off and on since early 2005, and have never tackled a daily podcast. It is an interesting experience, to be sure. Each episode takes around 2.5 hours from start to finish. This includes: 1. Reading over the day's Scriptures earlier in the day, and considering which chapter should b...

Today we are reading Genesis 21, Nehemiah 10, Matthew 20 and Acts 20. Way before my time, there was a TV show called, "I Love Lucy," which I occasionally watched in my childhood on syndication. If you aren't familiar with the show, it followed the crazy antics of Lucy Ricardo. Lucy was an extremely impulsive and creative woman, to put it mildly, and she was always getting into trouble in one way o...

Happy Lord's Day to you, friends and family! Today is episode 19, and we are reading about Sarah's rescue from Abimelech in Genesis 20 (because Abraham lied again!); The great prayer of confession from Nehemiah 9 (that makes TWO amazing prayers in this book!); The Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19, and a botched exorcism in Acts 19 that leaves the would be exorcists naked, bleeding and profoundly emb...

Genesis 19, Nehemiah 8, Matthew 18 and Acts 18 One thing I'm learning as we venture through reading four chapters of the Bible together every day - there will always be something important to talk about - way too many important things to talk about, given that this podcast tries to stay under 40 minutes per episode. Because we will be reading the New Testament together twice in 2020, I'm generally...

Today's Bible reading is Genesis 18, Nehemiah 7, Matthew 17 and Acts 17. Once again, we are faced with several thick and significant scriptural passages: Genesis 18 features three 'men' visiting Abraham and Sarah, one of whom is God Himself. It also features an incredible intercessory conversation between God and Abraham about the fate of Sodom. In Matthew 17, we see The Transfiguration of Jesus a...

After our question yesterday about the Old Testament and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, a promise was made that we would cover circumcision in a future episode. Well, your long time of waiting has come to an end. Today is the day we tackle the painful issue of circumcision. I'll go ahead and let you know also that this is not the last time we will discuss this issue, as it will come up again an...

There are so many interesting themes in today's four chapters in our daily Bible reading! The way this podcast works, for those that are new, is that I try and choose one big Bible question to discuss for each daily episode, and then one spiritually encouraging passage from a spiritual giant. My own personal goal is to try and make MOST of the shows under 30 minutes, though on deep topics that doe...

Today we have a fascinating situation in Genesis 15 whereby God and Abram make a covenant, some deep encouragement from Acts 14, Builders rebuilding the walls in Nehemiah with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other (shout out to Charles Spurgeon!) and two of Jesus' most well known miracles: the feeding of the five thousand and His walking on water. Our Bible question of the day is: Why does...

Today we are reading Genesis 14, Nehemiah 3, Matthew 13 and Acts 13, following the Robert Murray M'Cheyne Bible reading plan. Our big Bible question of the day is all about Melchizedek, one of the most interesting and mysterious figures in the Old Testament. As of today, we are 3 chapters into Nehemiah, and we've barely talked about him! I hope to rectify that in an upcoming episode of the podcast...