Guitars and Theology Podcast

Eggs, small dogs, monkeys, a heart attack, jumping out of planes, gross food, miracles, and other topics.

Every human seeks meaning and purpose.

An outdoor walk and talk wherein I ramble about... God's omniscience grains of sand and the number of stars bats and dolphins can see with sound bees see ultraviolet light dogs and vultures' sense of smell dinosaurs eating grass for 65 million years science and faith should be best friends God loves nature and so do we! feeling God in nature doesn't mean church is irrelevant

This was yesterday morning a few miles up the road at The House in Greenwood, DE. My text was 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

Today's thought was sparked by Philippians 1:7.

What we think we know keeps us from learning what we need to know. This chat is about the man born blind in John chapter 9.

In John chapter 3 Nicodemus told Jesus that the evidence supports that He's really from God. Jesus, instead of congratulating Nick on his astute observation, he tells him, "You must be born again." Only God reveals God.

Be open to other perspectives. Listen actively. Cultivate empathy. Ask thoughtful questions. Engage respectfully. Seek common ground. Challenge ideas, not individuals. Be willing to revise your own beliefs. Distrust adrenaline. Trust calm. Distrust the heady feeling of being right.

1. Is it good because God commands it? OR 2. Does God command it because it's good?

This conversation is about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

It might not be what we first expect.

The apostles claim that they had rational evidence based first person experience as warrant for their claims about Jesus and the Father (1 John 1:1-4). What do you believe and why? How do you know what you think you know? And how do we engage people who don't believe what we do?

Some thoughts about God's incredibly beautiful design of masculine and feminine and our calling to responsibly reign in life with God. Genesis 1:26ff were the primary verses.

This chat is from Exodus 19 and 20.

Being sincere doesn’t make us right, and that’s the hardest kind of blindness to discern. God can reach the “unreachable.” Encountering Jesus is the single most transformative reality on planet earth. Jesus is alive and active (independent of our involvement or knowledge). Jesus wants to involve us in what he’s doing. Jesus usually communicates the next step, not the whole plan. Jesus calls people...

God's intention is that we become the sort of people He can grant our heart's desires. That requires a transforming process!

This chat is about the story in Acts 5 where Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit and then fell down dead.

God's infinite power is incomprehensibly great, but what we need is not so much a display of brute force, but rather the synaptic connections in our minds to be upgraded so that we think, believe, experience, and understand what we otherwise cannot. This talk is from the great prayer in Ephesians 3.

Don't be so rigid. Just doing it ain't really the point.

God won't force this on us, but neither can we do it without Him. Thankfully, I'm never without Him, He's always within me.

Something about the doubt of the disciples after Jesus' resurrection really grabbed my heart this year. It's so easy to be hard on oneself for doubts, but even they did -- with Jesus standing right in front of them! And why? I guess because life's taught us that things fall apart, and if it seems too good to be true, it's probably some sort of scam. But that's how good the good news really is. It...

This chat is about today; Holy Saturday.

A plea.

Tragedy? Certainly. Gruesome? Oh yes. Difficult to face? For me, definitely. The greatest single sin in all human history? I believe so. But on God's side of the decision it was also on purpose. Jesus walked into Jerusalem, knowing what would happen if He did. What's more, the Father asked him to. The question is, "Why?"

I don't think we stop and consider this enough. So let's.