In the Fire

After last week, we decided to march on ahead in the Book of Romans and take a look at the book's next chapter: Romans 4. This chapter takes us back to Abraham (or Abram) - and yes, this means we also read some select verses from Genesis! Ultimately, we talk about the role of faith and the role of the law, and how all of us are truly saved by faith alone. Romans 4 approaches this from the topi...

For the 100th time, we take a trip into the fire, this time to talk about the first few chapters of the Book of Romans. These chapters set the stage for the entirety of the book, as Paul writes about our fallen state, our status as sinners, and the justification we receive only through faith in Christ. You'll want to grab your Bible and read along closely for this one as we dig into Romans 1-3...

As we welcome the Christmas season, we jump into a Christmas-themed episode and discuss the idea of the name Immanuel - "God with Us." What does "Immanuel" mean in a biblical, theological, and historical sense? How about in a personal sense, for each of us in our lives? These are the questions we tackle in this episode as we flip through passages in Isaiah, Hebrews, Matthew, an...

This week brings us to a much more theological topic as we dig into the Biblical concept of atonement. We examine atonement in the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments, discussing God's forgiveness for us under the old covenant and the new covenant. The two key words for this episode are propitiation and expiation. What do those words mean and how do they relate to the grand scheme of aton...

This episode brings us to the seventh chapter of the Book of Luke, where we see a variety of accounts from Jesus's life and some quick parables from Jesus. Through Luke's writing in this chapter, we get a great glimpse of some of the attributes that make Jesus so special and powerful as our Savior. What are those attributes? Listen in and find out!

This episode brings us to an oft-avoided topic among Christians: giving. The goal of our discussion on giving is to talk about the Biblical reality of why we give, as well as how the Bible instructs us to give. While giving our money, talents, and time is never an easy thing to do, we are directly told to do so at several points throughout Scripture. So, what does this really mean for us today? Th...

This week, we dig into an episode that is a mix of history, theology, and straight-up Scripture. Sounds fun, right? It is! The topic for this episode is the "Five Solas," a theological development dating back to the Protestant Reformation, where the Christian faith was redefined in many important ways. The Five Solas refer to five core tenets of Christianity, with each one pointing to a...

In this episode, we get a chance to do one of our favorite things: we connect three parts of the Bible to get an overview of how God's plan unfolds over time. Specifically, we read Genesis 11, where we review the account of the Tower of Babel. From there, we ask ourselves how this piece of Biblical history connects with the Great Commission. That is, how are we called to reach the nations in l...

We continue a long string of episodes in the Old Testament, this time flipping over to the book of 1 Samuel for a lesson as old as the earth itself. 1 Samuel gives us a lot of great people and interesting stories, one of which is that of Israel asking God for a human king. After years of God's provision through chosen people and priests, His people ask the priest Samuel for God to grant them s...

Last week's episode about wisdom in Proverbs got us in the mood to examine the topic even more closely! To do so, we flipped over just a little bit to the book of Ecclesiastes, which was (as far as we know) also written by Solomon. Considered one of the wisest to ever do it, Solomon has some perspective on wisdom that we hope to understand by reading some select passages from Ecclesiastes. In...

In this episode, we return to a book that we have yet to cover in much detail! After a short discussion of wisdom literature in the Bible in general, we read a few chapters out of the book of Proverbs. Written (mostly) by Solomon, the Proverbs give us a collection of some of the wisest statements of knowledge in Scripture. As we discuss these chapters, we take some time to read and reflect, and su...

Well, we've made it to the final episode of our series following the books of Ezra and Nehemiah! In this episode, we discuss the (somewhat unsatisfying?) conclusion to Nehemiah's account of God's people restoring Jerusalem. As we read through the final chapter of this book, we see some of the same themes come up that we've discussed before, and we talk about those along with some o...

We continue this week with the sixth and penultimate episode of our Nehemiah series. Now that we've been studying this book for a while, the dots are starting to connect as we near the end of Nehemiah's account of leading the people of Judah upon their return to Jerusalem. In this episode, we read and talk through chapters 11 and 12 of Nehemiah (after a brief recap of some notable points f...

We're back! This week, we return to the fire to bring you the fifth installment of our series on Nehemiah! In this episode, we get into a deeper discussion about repentance and talk about how we can turn our lives fully back to God - based on the account of the people in Jerusalem after the city walls were rebuilt. As we read in these chapters (Nehemiah 8-10), our old pal Ezra returns to lead...

Come along for the fourth installment of our series on the Book of Nehemiah! This time, we cover a good bit of ground as we trek through Nehemiah Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Here, we read some interesting details about internal conflict and division among the people in Jerusalem, as well as some external plotting and devious plans of outsiders who continue to oppose the rebuilding of the city and its wa...

For our third episode in the Nehemiah series (and seventh in the Ezra-Nehemiah series), we skip ahead to the fourth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah, where we see Nehemiah and the people in Jerusalem directly dealing with threats and opposition from enemies nearby. Nehemiah's response to this opposition leads us to a very interesting question and discussion on how we are to love our enemies eve...

On this Easter Sunday, we are continuing along with our trek through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah! In this episode, we read and talk through the events that are laid out in Nehemiah Chapter 2, where we learn more about Nehemiah as a faithful follower of God and about his relationship with the Persian king Artaxerxes. And because everything ultimately points to the Savior, we have some notes that...

We continue our series on the return of God's people to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile, this time flipping from the book of Ezra to that of Nehemiah! In this episode, we recap the big lessons and takeaways from Ezra before diving into some leftover questions and concerns from our previous episode. After wrapping up Ezra's account of the return to Jerusalem, we turn to the account Neh...

We're back! After a little break, we are here again for the final installment in our series on the Book of Ezra. In this episode, we read the final chapters of Ezra and learn more about the state of the people of Judah as they rebuilt and reentered Jerusalem. These chapters tell us of ongoing sin and unfaithfulness among God's people, but also tell us of the work of Ezra in reaching those...

As you may be able to tell by the name of the episode, this week we are continuing our series on the Book of Ezra! In this episode, we read the next few chapters out of Ezra (chapters 6-8), where we see the Temple finished in Jerusalem following the return of God's People from the Babylonian Captivity. We also get some more history and find out more about the timeline of events after the Judeans r...

This week, we continue our series on the Book of Ezra as we talk more about the return of God's People from the Babylonian Exile. This episode brings a lot of historical notes as we read Ezra 4 and 5 and go through the timeline of events as the people of Judah finish rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. These chapters tell us of the adversity that the Judeans faced as they started the Temple projec...

We have an exciting group of episodes coming, starting this week as we begin a series on the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah! Taking place at the conclusion of the Babylonian Captivity, Ezra tells the story of the return of God's people to Jerusalem. This week, we take a look at Ezra 1-3, where the first group of people returning to Jerusalem gets off to a surprisingly positive start, aided by King Cyr...

Jesus is not only the greatest leader in the history of the world, but he is also the most humble person to ever walk on earth. As Scripture reveals again and again, it was Jesus's humility in his interactions with others that made him such a strong leader. For this episode, we take a look at a few specific instances where the New Testament shows us the importance and value of humility. Jesus prea...

It may be a few days after Christmas, but it's still Christmas in our minds! For this year's Christmas episode, we take a look at the different ways that God communicated with the people involved in the narrative of Jesus's birth. From Mary to the Shepherds (to Simeon), God sends messages and talks to all of these different people in unique and impactful ways. From these individual communications,...

What do you know about the book of Habakkuk? If your answer is "not much," then it's your lucky day! In this episode, we take some time to talk about the context, importance, and prevalent themes of the book of Habakkuk. As one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament, Habakkuk provides us with an interesting look at the nation of Judah just before the Babylonian Exile. In the end, the book give...