Bible Geeks Podcast

Believe and Build Your Faith How do you decide what to believe? Is there any place for doubt in the Christian’s life? And what can we do when we find our faith mingled with a touch of unbelief? This week we begin looking at FAITH, one of the marks of the Master we seek to imitate in our Cross Training to be like him. In this week’s Like the Master story, we imagine the incredulous tone of Jesus’ v...

Build Meaningful Connections Relationships … amiright?!? Even our closest friendships can take time and effort, yet Jesus leads us into all the “messiness” that comes with befriending, serving, and leading others closer to him. This week we focus on a fourth dimension of discipleship: COMMUNITY, identifying four Heavy Words that are essential for Christlike connections with people. We also learn w...

Just Do It! "Aaand … ACTION!" In the last two episodes we talked about the importance of the truth and the heart, but a third dimension of discipleship is action — letting the Lord’s example shape our behavior. We revisit two iconic stories: First we learn from Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Then, Abraham receives a shocking test in a segment we call Here’s the Story. As we see Jesus on his kn...

Rewrite Your Heart How do we learn to love what the Lord loves? This week, we're looking at another dimension of discipleship — "Heart" — as we continue our Cross Training. In this episode's Like the Master story, Jesus stresses out his parents and Bryan takes a lesson from a mouthy robot. And in a Psalm 16 edition of Poetry in Motion, we find our refuge, our portion, and our hope in a prophecy of...

Shape Your Thinking with Truth Happy New Year! This week, we’re excited to start doing some “Cross Training.” Throughout this year, we’ll explore what it means to do the hard work of crucifying ourselves so that Christ can live in us. But the start of discipleship is listening to the teacher and learning to think like him. So in this episode, we talk about how a knowledge of truth changes us, and...

Watch This Introduction Happy New Year everyone! Now that our Into the Book reading plan is over, what's next? Today, we're excited to share our plans for 2021! We're calling it Cross Training — a yearlong discipleship development series for believers of all ages and spiritual maturity levels. We want to become fully trained — cross trained — by the Master Teacher himself (Luke 6:40). To do that,...

Close the Year with Reflection We made it! Congratulations on persevering through 2020 — especially to those of you who read through the New Testament with us. This week we talk about the Bible’s spectacular ending — its symmetry, grace, and, well, finality. We also look back at a few of our Favorite Things in 2020, reflecting on what helped us grow in the Lord this year. May God bless you in this...

Push Towards the Finish Line What kind of year has it been? This week, as we draw to the close of the year, we also near the end of reading through the New Testament. And these strange pictures in Revelation seem as good a backdrop as any to reflect on lessons from this strange year. So we’re Finding Jesus in Revelation 13-17 and talking about weakness, instability, grit, and a God who cares. Join...

Programming Note: This week, we're replaying one of our favorite episodes from the past. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Prepare for Spiritual Warfare This week, we’re going to war! What does spiritual warfare look like? What is the “_armor of God_” (Eph. 6:10-18) all about? And who is the real enemy? And as we discuss Ephesians 2-6, we find a challenging standard for maturity an...

Be Amazed at the Heavenly Vision This week, John’s vision leads us through a door and into God’s spectacular throne room. Revelation helps us understand how we’ll celebrate in heaven and how the Lord sees congregations. As we go Finding Jesus, we learn that the lion is the lamb, and the lamb is the shepherd. Then we dive into Christ’s letters to the churches with some “Deeep Thoughts.” What does i...

Put the Lord First Always What do we learn about idolatry from WALL-E, Andy Griffith, and John Calvin? This week we take a look at our idols, acknowledging the many ways we can elevate other things and downgrade the One True God. As usual, we start the episode by Finding Jesus in this week’s reading , discovering the “Anti” Anti-Christ and learning how Jesus the opposite of the Wizard of Oz. And i...

Be Confident in Uncertain Times What do Craftsmen Tools and the Phantom Menace have to do with our confidence in Christ? With all the uncertainty around us, it seems like the perfect time to focus on what we can KNOW from the book of 1 John. Why does healing require honesty and why does prayer require give and take? This week’s reading in Hebrews 13 and 1 John 1-4 shows us how to deal with misplac...

Walk with Faith and Integrity This week, in a Psalm 15 edition of Poetry in Motion, we learn that God wants to host people in his home, but not everyone can enter. We discuss how the tabernacle is like LEGOs, character is like a key card, and seeking God is like dating (it made sense when we said it!). Plus, we answer questions like: Does God really want us to despise “vile” people? Is it wrong to...

Overcome Your Spiritual Struggles Where are your spiritual “growing pains”? This week, we had a frank conversation about some of the difficulties that have threatened to pull us off course spiritually. From the magnetic pull of the comfortable to the isolation of feeling you’re on your own, there are so many ways to get discouraged and stop growing. Our current reading in Hebrews 3-7 exhorts a gro...

Honor God’s Incredible Son What is your defining metaphor for life? What does it tell you about Jesus that as he hung on the cross, he put plans in place for a trusted disciple to look after his mom? And how is hidden love like winking at a girl in the dark? This week we go Finding Jesus in our weekly reading from the Into the Book reading plan — John 19-21 and Hebrews 1-2. Then we share 4 Proverb...

Connect with Christ Have you ever asked, “Why did God make me?” This week, we discuss our purpose, our relationships, and the source of all our accomplishments, drawing from this week’s readings in John 14-18. What’s the difference between a servant and a friend, and why does Jesus call his disciples friends? And what kind of friendship with one another does that call us into? Plus, we look at a s...

Programming Note: This week, we're replaying one of our favorite episodes from the past. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Believe in Jesus’ Power to Raise the Dead We have big questions on our minds, as death looms over this week’s passages. Questions like: How can we put God in a box, even when we trust him in the big stuff? Does the famously brief verse, “Jesus wept,” display Ch...

Find Satisfaction in Salvation Is it ever okay to judge someone? How do rivers of living waters flow from believers’ hearts? And what does Jesus mean when he talks about eating his flesh? This week, we’re taking on some challenging questions from our reading . We also ask how Jesus can honor the Sabbath, yet never take a day off, and why doing God’s will is the food that sustained Jesus — and can...

Be Born … Again What does it mean to be “born again”? This week, as we begin reading the gospel of John, we’re thinking about grace, the new birth, and...well, food. We consider how grace is like a stack of pancakes, how bread crumbs lead us forward, and how the Lord’s wine tastes the best (and what that should tell us about everything else he does!). And we dive into the Bible’s most famous verse...

Have No Fear How are our lives restored like Japanese vases? And how do our responses to fear and desire reveal our beliefs? This week, a Psalm 14 edition of Poetry in Motion reveals the hope and helplessness of humanity. We find an antidote to anxiety and learn what God says about conspiracy theories as we go Finding Jesus in this week’s reading . And along the way, we learn about Ryan’s awful ey...

Run From Loving the World What do you love? This week we look at some of the objects of affection the Bible directs us away from, and which ones it points us toward . Along the way we talk about the Borg and Big Ten Football, long distance relationships and kids finally cleaning their rooms. Today’s Scripture du Jour (1 Peter 1) holds up a mirror. And we find encouragement in some fundamentals of...

I Mean It! What do you consider the most “essential workers” on the planet today? This week we set our sites on understanding what Paul says about overseers (1 Timothy 3). What does church leadership look like, and what’s the point of all those qualifications? We also learned some stuff about money from our Scripture du Jour (1 Timothy 6) — both the good and the bad. And we kick things off with Ch...

Be Sound in the Faith What does it mean to be “sound”? This week we consider what spiritual health and wellness requires, when we look at an important Heavy Word. We ask, “what is the goal of a Bible class?” and “what’s the point of church discipline?” And we go Finding Jesus in this week’s reading — which points to a common need we share with all humanity. The Big Idea: Teaching that is faithful...

Prepare for Spiritual Warfare This week, we’re going to war! What does spiritual warfare look like? What is the “ armor of God ” (Eph. 6:10-18) all about? And who is the real enemy? And as we discuss Ephesians 2-6, we find a challenging standard for maturity and a stabilizing love in Christ. Then we talk about sleeping and submitting in an Ephesians 5 edition of Scripture du Jour. And by the way,...

Programming Note: This week, we're replaying one of our favorite episodes from the past. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Learn to Intercede for Others This week a listener question about “interceding for others” raises lots of other questions for us. Like, how does it change us when we pray for our families, our enemies, and even strangers? When is it an empty gesture to say, “yo...