Become Good Soil

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download I break the limits I have made with who God can be, what God can do, and how God can do it in my life. It's perhaps the second most dangerous and daring prayer we could ever pray. And it is one that can lead us into treasures beyond telling. Listen to this session from the most recent Become Good Soil Intensive about receiving God a...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download What was it about Jesus that allowed him to become quite possibly the most relaxed and lovingly unpredictable person who ever lived? Join me as we explore part two of an eight-part series in which we're going behind the scenes into the most recent Become Good Soil Intensive. If you haven't listened to episode one, start there . You...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Many are saying that in the automobile industry, there has not been a revolution of this magnitude since Henry Ford inaugurated the assembly line for the Model T Ford on December 1, 1913. Yet as with every revolution and in every growing kingdom, there are hidden costs. Even in an endeavor as brilliant and groundbreaking as the Tesl...

In time it sometimes comes to pass that familiarity can give way to presumed familiarity. That presumed familiarity can then give way to unfamiliarity. And unfamiliarity can give way to boredom, obscurity, or even contempt. – Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download There’s nothing like the practical.   In this third and final episode...

Meditation and contemplative prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us to draw us to himself. ― Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download What is it like to really know God? Not just know about God but to know him, thoroughly and comprehensively...

All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace. –Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download I find it fascinating that when Jesus speaks of eternal life, it's less often about a specific time or place where we transition into some other state of being and more often about a quality of life—robust, deep vita...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Spontaneity is the fruit of preparation. – Jonathan David Helser "Did you bring me out here in the storm to kill me?" This pained and brutally honest prayer poured from Jonathan David Helser's heart in the midst of a moment of exposure and hand-to-hand battle with the living God. Jonathan explains, Over the years, the Father has eng...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download If we have a crisis in this country. It’s more than a fatherless crisis, though. It’s a crisis of manhood, of masculinity. It’s affecting our families, our schools; it’s filling our prisons, and it’s killing the hearts of our women. – Donald Miller Check out the news on any given day and you’ll find stories that illuminate a crisis...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download When we worship, we silence the fear and declare who our father really is. – Jonathan Helser "Messy could describe the first moment that God has with man. He gathers dirt in His hands to form Adam. There is dirt under God's fingernails and then on God’s lips as He draws Adam close to breathe in His Spirit. What is it like for Adam w...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download The whole point is presence, the with-God life. That’s the real substance of our relationship with God. – Dallas Willard, 1935-2013 Amidst the clamor of contemporary life, there is the narrow path of slowing down and setting our souls before the insight of the elders. We can take heart: there are wise ones who have gone before us, m...

The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited. - Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Brad Beck has spent a lifetime offering strength in a myriad of roles in countless missions. As a flight surgeon...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. – John Muir Piecing together a string of single-track trails that meander through a dry, rocky, cactus-strewn landscape, it’s possible to make a 48-mile continuous trek across Zion National Park. For most people, this trek would be one of the epic adventures of the...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. –Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Kelly and Phil are getting a divorce. The email from a mutual friend sharing the news hit me like a punch in the stomach. Brandon and his dad are in deep contention...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download The offer is Life. Yet that abundant life is often found in the least likely of places. What is the most effective path toward the much looked-for restoration in the heart of your spouse? Join Cherie and me in this second half of a conversation in which we reflect on the particular elements of Reality as Jesus reveals what can bring...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Jesus and his words…are essentially subversive of the established arrangements and ways of thinking. That is clear from the way they first entered the world, their initial effects, and how they are preserved in the New Testament writings and live on in people. He himself described his words as “spirit and life” (John 6:63). They inv...

If we are relational to our core, fashioned in the image of the One who is Three, then it is in dynamic relationship that we participate in the unending Life of God. And among human relationships, there is none more brimming with the loving potential to both expose our "not yet" and to beckon us forward than marriage. In The Mystery of Marriage, Mike Mason writes, The book of Proverbs as a whole t...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download By day and by decade. These words have become a mantra for my masculine soul. A sort of North Star as I attempt to orient and re-align my life with the Reality of God and His Kingdom. Allen Arnold and I had an opportunity to share some dialogue and prayer regarding how we're choosing to orient our souls at the beginning of this new...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download This most recent episode was a treasure to record, featuring Esther Sparks, a Scottish poet and musician whose music has been uniquely sustaining to Cherie and me throughout this decade of excavation and becoming. Offering transparently from her own story, Esther’s music speaks to central themes of the human experience: love and los...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download It has been said, "The lives of many rest in the courage of a few." How are you becoming the kind of person to whom God can entrust the lives of others? How are you becoming the kind of person to whom God can entrust his Kingdom? In this third episode of a three-part series, I take us deeper into a Become Good Soil Intensive, where...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download In part two of the three part series, we venture behind the scenes into a sacred space where sages of the great nation of Australia offer their counsel at a Become Good Soil Intensive in New South Wales. I want to invite you to savor some wisdom from the ancient path. We are now accepting applications for the upcoming Become Good So...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download What astonishes the heart of God? In part one of this three-part series, I want to invite you behind the scenes into a session at the heart of the most recent Become Good Soil Intensive in Colorado. We are now accepting applications for the upcoming Become Good Soil Intensives in both Colorado and Australia in May of 2017.  Find out...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download It was a shimmering rehearsal dinner, the headwaters of which were most certainly in Eternity. The choicest wine flowed, but even more, the choicest stories: stories of daring, risk, and deep redemption. Family and friends honored Abbey and Shaun with words of profound affection, honor for obstacles overcome, and the kind of faithfu...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download It all started with a lawnmower, a skateboard, a women's clothing magazine, and a set of flip flops. What if play is God's idea and is at the epicenter of Kingdom living? (A version of this podcast is also available in written form .)

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. -Matthew 13:44 In the sunset of his days, D. L. Moody realized that the catalyst for the deepest portion of his conve...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download This episode of the Become Good Soil Podcast is a reflection I wrote after ongoing ventures in recent years through The Message paraphrase of Matthew 21:12-18, the passage commonly referred to as “The Clearing of the Temple.” My hope is that it might help us thirsty ones peel back the glaze of over-familiarity and experience the sce...