Discover the Word Podcast

Think about the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,” which calls God’s people to worship and communion with the God who is both accessible and mysterious. The first verse ends with these words: “God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.”   Talk about mystery! The one God who manifests Himself in three distinct persons is beyond our description and beyond our comprehension, yet this is the God who has invited us...

Do our choices really make a difference? Yes! When we carefully—and creatively—invest our love for God, He can do great things through us. Our choices, stacked one upon another like dominoes in a row, influence the events in our lives, in the lives of others, and in our world. In 32 verses in Exodus, we’re introduced to six people, one man and five women, who made a difference simply by investing...

Few promises of the Bible offer more reassurance than when God says “I will never leave or forsake you.” Who among us doesn’t want to believe that God is still with us—now? Yes, we see evidence of God in the sky and stars. But here on the ground, we worry. Maybe that’s one reason God asked the huge family that he had rescued from Egypt to camp around His tent in the Wilderness of Sinai. From the o...

Few promises of the Bible offer more reassurance than when God says “I will never leave or forsake you.” Who among us doesn’t want to believe that God is still with us—now? Yes, we see evidence of God in the sky and stars. But here on the ground, we worry. Maybe that’s one reason God asked the huge family that he had rescued from Egypt to camp around His tent in the Wilderness of Sinai. From the o...

Justice . What comes to mind when you see or hear that word? We've heard a lot about justice recently, and have so many thoughts, ideas, images, assumptions, and expectations of what justice is and how it works. Understandably, that influences what we think when we read the word justice in the Scriptures. So, this week, the Discover the Word group would like to pause and act as if we've never seen...

Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. Join the Discover the Word group as they talk with award-winning au...

In the Bible, there seems to be a love-hate relationship with mountains. It was in the mountains that Israel established “high places” where false gods were worshipped. Yet, it is nonetheless surprising how often mountains are the sites where significant biblical events happened. Here in part 2 of this series of the Discover the Word Podcast, we consider five more of those important and dramatic m...

How do you view mountains? Do you see them as majestic? Intimidating? Beautiful? Dangerous?  No matter how we might view them, numerous significant biblical events happened on mountains. What are some of these important and dramatic moments, and what can we perhaps learn from them? This is what we want to consider together over the next two weeks on Discover the Word .

Most of us find prayer baffling. Sometimes even unsatisfying. At the heart of our struggle is a kind of tug-of-war between what we want and what God wants. We have certain “prayer problems.” In one of the most desperate moments of His life, Jesus prayed a specific prayer. A prayer contained in three gospels and mentioned in the fourth. “Take this cup, yet not my will.” A two-sided prayer coin. Tak...

Most of us find prayer baffling. Sometimes even unsatisfying. At the heart of our struggle is a kind of tug-of-war between what we want and what God wants. We have certain “prayer problems.” In one of the most desperate moments of His life, Jesus prayed a specific prayer. A prayer contained in three gospels and mentioned in the fourth. “Take this cup, yet not my will.” A two-sided prayer coin. Tak...

Let’s be real. Modern culture is not a patient culture. We don’t like to wait for anything, and we’ve come up with just about every shortcut we can think of to get things done or in our possession more quickly. Henri Nouwen wrote, “Most people consider waiting a waste of time.” Maybe that’s why we pull out our phones at a red light or while in line. Yet the story of the Bible could be described as...

A crisis has been defined as any event that is going to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. One teacher described a crisis more personally as any event or circumstance that makes you fundamentally reorganize your life. Either way, crises shake us to our core. In Psalm 34, the psalmist (David) is facing a time of crisis, and offer...

In this series on Discover the Word, the group explores the importance of "where" with our Bible geography expert Dr. Jack Beck. Jack is convinced that location almost always shapes our understanding of an event, and so for that reason, God speaks geographically. The Bible has geography on virtually every page. Discover with the group why geography is not just trivia, it is an essential element of...

In Discover the Word Podcast, the group explores the importance of "where" with our Bible geography expert, Dr. Jack Beck. Jack is convinced that location almost always shapes our understanding of an event, and so for that reason, God speaks geographically. The Bible has geography on virtually every page. Discover with the group why geography is not just trivia, but it is an essential element of G...

Most of us long to hear from God. Directly. In words we can clearly understand and respond to. Right? Scripture catalogues several instances of God speaking to humans, actually more than we might first remember. One story in specific – the interaction of God with Samuel in I Samuel 1-3 - offers insight into how God speaks, and how we, too, can hear Him when we listen.

Dive deeper into our conversation with Jeff Manion’s book The Land Between . Using the biblical story of the Israelites’ journey through the Sinai Desert as a metaphor for being in an undesired time of transition, this book provides fresh biblical insight for people traveling through undesired and difficult transitions of their own. You’ll discover that God desires to meet you in these spaces, hel...

Pastor and author Jeff Manion joins Discover the Word to discuss observations about the unwanted transitions of life. Jeff calls this space the “Land Between.” These are times when life is not as it was and likely not as it will be in the future. These times of change, however, provide our greatest opportunity for spiritual growth.  Join the group as they look at the biblical story of the Israelit...

One of the tried and tested ways we learn is through repetition. Whether it’s multiplication tables, grammar rules, or other languages, repetition helps to embed important ideas in our minds. The same is true with the most important ideas of all—those presented in the Scriptures. So, when we read Habakkuk 2:4, the fact that it’s repeated no less than three times in the New Testament should grab ou...

Remember playing dress up as a kid? You’d get in your mom’s or dad’s old clothes and role play adulthood. The Bible is filled with mentions of clothing – both literal and figurative, beginning in Genesis with the first desire for clothing after human kind’s fall. Through the New Testament epistles especially, the metaphor of “dressing up” takes on a special significance, directing us to express ou...

Dr. Christina Edmondson is convinced that since our brain is part of our body, we need to pursue good "brain health." Our brains are a gift from God and we need to be good stewards of our brains just like we need to be good stewards of our whole body. So, how do we take good care of our brain? How do we practice good mental health? Join the Discover the Word group this week as Dr. Christina Edmond...

None of us escape being hurt deeply by others as we go through life. We've all been cheated on, lied to, swindled, dismissed, isolated, taken advantage of. And it's into that broken reality that Jesus tells a parable about one of the most difficult things we do in life--forgive. Join the Discover the Word group this week as they immerse themselves in a story Jesus told about forgiveness, unforgive...