God‘s Story Podcast

How can we offer a response to the cares and concerns of our day with love? Brent talks with author Felicia Murrell who’s just published a new book with Whitaker House called ‘And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World’. Felicia is a certified master life coach and former ordained pastor with over twenty years of church leadership experience.  Sne also serves the publishing industry...

 ‘In a time when the world seems to be fighting more and more battles, communing with God is more vital than ever.  Now is the time for believers to transform their prayer time with God and renew their lives’. Brent talks with pastor and author Frankie Mazzapica about his new Whitaker House book ‘Ignite Your Life: 14 Powerful Things That Happen When You Pray’. Frankie is the founding and lead past...

How is our work a way to love God, serve our neighbours, and demonstrate the gospel? How do we engage our daily work as part of how God made all things new? Brent talks with Ross Chapman and Ryan Tafilowski about their new IVP book ‘Faithful Work: In the Daily Grind with God and for Others’. Ross is the CEO of Denver Institute for Faith and Work.  He previously founded and served as president and...

What is consciousness? Can we explain human consciousness without God? Brent talks with Joshua Farris, a teacher, pastor, editor, author, blogger and podcaster.  His speciality is the soul as well as divine justice, the atonement and a lot of other things.  He’s currently the Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellow at the University of Bocum.  He was  a previous fellow at the Creation Project, Carl...

How can our work become a way to love God, serve our neighbours and demonstrate the gospel to the world? Brent talks with Jeff Haanen about his new IVP America book called ‘Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World’. Jeff is a writer and entrepreneur.  He founded Denver Institute for Faith and Work, a community of conveners, teachers, and learners off...

Where did our Bible come from? The more we understand how Scripture came to be, the more we discover its power and truth. Brent talks with Susan Lim about her new IVP America book ‘Light of the Word: How Knowing the History of the Bible Illuminates Our Faith’. Susan has been professor of history at Biola University in La Mirada, California and is a speaker at conferences, churches and retreats.  (...

How should we respond to evil and its power to assault us? Brent talks with Ingrid Faro about her new IVP book ‘Demystifying Evil: A Biblical and Personal Exploration’. Ingrid is coordinator of the MA in Old Testament program and visiting professor at Northern Seminary in Lisle, Illinois.  She previously served as dean of academic affairs at Northern Seminary, dean of theology at the Scandinavian...

Brent is joined by Susannah Black Roberts, senior editor of ‘Plough’ to talk about St. Monica of Thagaste, the mother of St. Augustine. We learn about Monica’s unusual marriage, her vision about her son and Augustine’s student years – ‘a sort of late Classical Carthaginian Brideshead Revisited Scene’.  We also learn about Roman toilets!  Susannah has written for publications including ‘First Thing...

How does John end the Apocalypse? Brent talks with Dr. Alastair Roberts of the Theopolis Institute about the final chapter of the book of Revelation.    (0:30) Revelation 22; (2:10) The imagery; (5:00) The river and the sea in God’s throne room; (6:30) The Tree of Life; (13:30) God’s mark on the forehead and the High Priest; (15:00) The Lord Jesus – the Alpha and Omega; (17:30) The wicked excluded...

What are the new heavens and the new earth? Brent talks with Dr. Alastair Roberts of the Theopolis Institute in the States about Revelation 21. (2:10) Isaiah and Ezekiel; (6:30) God tabernacles among us; (8:50) The description of the New Jerusalem. The number 12; (11:30) The gemstones; (14:15) The 12 gemstones and the signs of the Zodiac; (15:00) The city and Israel’s camp in the wilderness; (16:1...

What is the millennium? Brent talks with Dr. Alastair Roberts of the Theopolis Institute in the States about Revelation 20. (0:30) The structure of Revelation 20; (1:15) The binding of Satan; (2:15) The millennium. Different interpretations; (10:30) The number one thousand; (12:35) Saints and martyrs reigning now; (16:00) Gog and Magog; (19:10) Death and Hades; (19:50) The Second Death; (20:50) Th...

Brent is joined once again by Jennifer Holberg to talk about another great Christian poet – Christina Rossetti. Jennifer is professor and chair of the English Department at Calvin University in the States and co-director of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing.  She’s also the author of the book ‘Nourishing Narratives’.     (1:00) Who is Christina Rossetti? (2:30) Rossetti and Hopkins; (5:00) M...

Where does the gospel of Mark actually end? Brent and Ian take a deep dive into Mark’s resurrection account. (1:20) The women; (2:50) Joseph of Arimathea; (4:50) Passover and a dead body; (7:20) The ending of Mark (which one?) (9:20) The Resurrection; (11:10) The women as witnesses; (12:15) The young man; (13:50) Mark’s resurrection account and the other gospels; (16:00) The importance of the Resu...

Is ‘The Night of the Hunter’ a Christmas movie about spiritual warfare? Brent talks to Hannah Long about the classic 1955 movie starring Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish and directed by Charles Laughton. Hannah is a passionate cinephile.  She writes cultural commentary and film criticism for a number of publications including ‘The Dispatch’, ‘Angelus News’, ‘American Consequences’ and ‘American Cin...

In what sense is the crucifixion the crowning moment of history? Brent and Ian discuss Mark 15:16-39. (1:08) A key moment of salvation history; (2:50) The soldiers and Jesus; (4:00) The crown of thorns; (7:50) Golgotha; (7:43) The wine with myrrh; (8:55) The third hour; (9:35) The two robbers; (12:00) The sixth hour and the ninth hour. An undoing of creation? 14:20) The symbolism of darkness; (15:...

Brent is joined by Jennifer Holberg to talk about the poetry and life of the great Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins was no staid conventional Victorian but a poet-priest who used innovative language and form to communicate the spiritual essence of nature and things. Jennifer is professor and chair of the English Department at Calvin University in the States and co-director of the Calv...

How did the Bible come into being? Brent talks with Robert Suggs about his new Whitaker House book ‘The Book that Conquered Time: How the Bible Came to Be’. Rob has written or collaborated on more than 60 books. His clients have included New York Times best-selling authors such as Lee Strobel, Mark Batterson, David Jeremiah, and Bruce Wilkinson.  He worked with Jeremy and Jennifer Williams on ‘Ten...

Brent talks with Julie Seals the author of a new Bridge-Logos book called ‘All My Hope: A Prisoner No More’.  Julie unveils her extraordinary journey of overcoming a 17 year addiction to crystal meth and being transformed by the power of God. Julie is now an ordained minister and prison evangelist, is a popular keynote speaker for women’s conferences and also ministers in church services and youth...

‘The modern church is immersed in a competitive, polarized, and status driven society.  It’s hard to have conversations about important issues when so many are defensive and unwilling to learn.  Too often, Christians fall into these same traps. The health and witness of the church urgently depend on recovering an essential biblical virtue, humility’. Brent talks with Dennis Edwards about his new I...

‘A former officer grapples with the reality of our broken police culture’. Daniel Reinhardt spent 24 years as a police officer near Cleveland, Ohio in the States.  He was long unaware of the ways the culture of the police department was shaping him, but gradually, through his own experiences as a police officer and through the mentorship of Black Christians in his life, his eyes were opened to a d...

‘People with disabilities are often excluded from full participation in church communities’.  Churches must both consider the theological implications of disability and also become places where people with disabilities lead. Brent talks with Jody Michele and Andrea Mae, two of the authors (with Andrew Draper) of a new IVP book called ‘Disabling Leadership: A Practical Theology for the Broken Body...

‘Cancer is an overgrowth, a kudzu:/Tangling and strangling legitimate life.  Chemo is a killing, a burning out: Burning down to ashy carbon, indiscriminately But cancer, did you know that I am a poet’? Brent talks with poet Katy Bowser Hutson about her new IVP America book called ‘Now I Lay Me Down to Fight: A Poet Writes Her Way Through Cancer’ (second edition). Katy is a forming member of the ch...

‘Loving our neighbor isn’t just a nice idea – its one of Jesus’ most important commands’.  But who is our neighbor? Brent is joined by Dr. Emily Smith to talk about her Zondervan book ‘The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving Our Neighbors’. Emily is an epidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine/surgery at Duke University and at the Duke G...

What do the books of Luke and Acts teach us about God, Jesus, and the early church? How do these two books relate to each other? And what do they mean for us today? Brent talks with Michael Bird about his new IVP book ‘A Bird’s-Eye View of Luke and Acts’. Michael is academic dean and lecturer in New Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia.  Michael is an ordained Anglican priest and au...

‘Perhaps no other literary figure has transformed the American religious landscape in recent history as much as C.S. Lewis.  Even before the international publication and success of his ‘Narnia Chronicles’ or ‘Mere Christianity’ Lewis was already being read ‘across the pond’ in America.  But who exactly was reading his work? And how was he received?’ Brent talks with Mark Noll about his new IVP bo...