Restitutio

Jackie Hill-Perry used to dress like a boy to go out and pick up girls. She ended up in a long-term relationship with another woman, but then she came to a sudden realization that she was living a lie. She’s completely changed her life and now embraces her femininity and even got married to a man (Preston Perry). She’s a poet, a hip-hop artist, and a powerful speaker.  This is her test...

Meet Becket Cook.  He’s a very well-connected gay fashion set designer who has traveled the world, attended the Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys, etc., and rubbed shoulders with Hollywood’s A-list actors.  One day he saw Christians reading their bibles in a trendy coffee shop in LA and engaged them in conversation.  One of them invited Cook to church and he went to check it...

The best chapter on resurrection in the bible is 1 Corinthians 15. In it, the Apostle Paul masterfully lays out the Christian position on resurrection while overcoming common objections in the culture. As it turns out, people living in Corinth thought the idea of resurrection seemed real bizarre.  Looking at tombstone inscriptions, Plato’s Phaedo, and Celsus’ criticism of Christianity,...

How does salvation work?  Is Israel still God’s chosen people or are they on the same footing as everyone else now that the Messiah has come?  In Off Script episode 17, Is Jesus the Only Way to God? , Brian wrote in , inquiring if a Torah-observant Jew could be saved even if he or she didn’t believe in Jesus.  He sharpened his question by pointing out how painfully aware many Jews are...

Are you embarrassed of your non-traditional beliefs about God? Victor Gluckin says that it’s time to stand up for what we believe. Believing God is one (instead of three-in-one) is not some sort of fringe doctrine; it’s at the very heart of biblical faith. After all, Jesus himself identified the Jewish “shema” as the most important command.  He said: The most important is,...

Back in Interview 11 , Joe Martin talked about how he was soon to step down from his leadership position at the Church of God (General Conference).  In this episode, you’ll hear from Seth Ross, who has taken up the mantle and who casts his vision for the future.  You’ll learn about his background, his twenty years pastoring a church in Ohio, and how he came to be the executive director...

No one joined the Pharisees out of desire to practice professional hypocrisy. They were the devout, the separated, the ones who took God and holiness seriously. However, by the time of Jesus, they had confused godliness with self-righteousness and lost compassion in the process. It’s so easy for us to root for Jesus as he calls them on their hypocrisy. Nonetheless, this same attitude–t...

Now that we’ve worked through several counterfeit gods, including love, money, success, and power, it’s time to dig in a little deeper.  Do you understand your own heart?  Can you discern where you are tempted to idolize something or someone?  In order to figure this out, ask yourself these four questions: What do you daydream about? What do you spend your money on? What happens when y...

Covetousness, self-reliance, and envy can rob us of gratitude and contentedness.  So much of our world programs us to feel restless, entitled, and discontent regarding our possessions, how we look, our work, and our relationships.  Have you ever asked yourself, “How much is enough?”  Taking his cue from the Apostle Paul, John Cortright shares the secret of being content: recognizing th...

The 19th century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, believed that our desire for success, money, or love really went back to our “will to power.”  Whereas other philosophies focused on calibrating our internal state to accept reality, Nietzsche focused more on conforming reality to our desires.  Although it’s terribly out of fashion to admit one desires and pursues power, this cou...

Saint Patrick is one of the most courageous missionaries of Christian history. Although revelers mark his day with debauchery and drunkenness, he pursued holiness and risked his life to preach to the Irish barbarians. He held out to the ancient Irish tribes a promise of protection from their gods and demons, if only they would come to Christ. Not only is he an example of virtue and courage, he als...

Everyone enjoys accomplishment and achievement, but what happens when we take success and make it our ultimate goal in life?  When you reach the pinnacle of success in any field, it’s easy to get depressed, asking yourself, “Is this all there is?”  Furthermore, you may begin to fear that you won’t be able to maintain your position as other star-eyed would-be achievers are c...

The history of Christianity can sometimes be really depressing, especially when we look at the “heresy hunters.” From Justin Martyr and Irenaues in the second century to Athanasius and Epiphanius of the fourth century, as Christians we progressively came to define ourselves on the basis of what we don’t believe.  As a result, so much energy focused on precisely defining and polic...

I bet you don’t think you struggle with greed. In fact, I’ve never met anyone who told me this was a problem for him or her. But greed is subtle. It sneaks up on you when you think you’re just working towards financial security or building your confidence or taking control of your life. In this episode we discuss how greed lurks in the shadows as well as how to slay the beast thr...

We all have competing impulses within us vying for our attention and expression. How do you know which ones to amplify and which to repress? How should we think of ourselves? Are we powerful and valuable creatures made in God’s image or accidental byproducts of time plus chance plus matter? In order to live out authentic humanity we need to grasp who we are and how God calls us to live. Only...

Today we are starting a series based on Tim Keller’s book, Counterfeit Gods , wherein we’ll consider a number of idols that vie for worship in our society.  In this episode we consider Aphrodite, the ancient goddess of love, and her modern counterparts.  We begin by examining the somewhat dysfunctional love story of Jacob and Rachel in the book of Genesis.  We conclude that love and ro...

How should Christians relate to the government?  In this sermon, Vince Finnegan works through Romans 13 to show how we should relate to the powers that be.  Ultimately God is in charge of raising up and tearing down regimes and nations over the course of human history.  Our goal is to love one another as examples of genuine faith rather than get overwhelmed with political concerns. Notes: Romans 1...

Claudia Scott is one of the pillars of our church, a woman of faith who carries herself with dignity and poise. Growing up, she’s been an example to me of faithfulness and passion for God. Having only known her over the last twenty or so years, I was clueless about how much she had been through in her past. She suffered repeated sexual abuse for years as a child. Once she left the house, her...

What is true freedom?  We tend to think of freedom as the lack of restrictions so that we can do whatever we want.  However, I want to make the case that freedoms is not the lack of boundaries, but finding the right ones to enable us to be our best for God.  After God liberated the ancient Israelites form Egypt, they were free: politically, religiously, economically, etc.  However, they continued...

What do you believe about baptism?  In this interview, I ask Ken LaPrade, a house church pastor in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, to share his baptism journey.  Coming from a Way International background, LaPrade learned that spirit baptism had replaced water.  As a result he had interpreted the water baptisms in Acts to be incidents where the apostles held to an outdated methodology.  Apparen...

In this vintage message, Sir Anthony Buzzard makes the case that the gospel Jesus preached was about the kingdom. Although Jesus remains incredibly popular all around the world today, his message remains obscured even among many sincere followers. How can we call ourselves Christians if we are ignorant of Christ’s proclamation?  The kingdom is not living in heaven nor is it a clever way of t...

How are you at handling conflict?  Do you withdraw and avoid conflict at any cost?  Do you rush in headlong, eager to set the other person straight?  Are you a compromiser who looks at everything like a contract where both parties inevitably have to make trade-offs to get some advantage?  As with so many really important aspects of life, we rarely receive any instruction on how to confront one ano...

The gospel is the message we believe in that results in immortality (2 Tim 1.7-10).  If I were the devil, I would target the gospel message so that even if some Christians rustled up the courage to actually share it with others, they’d have a distorted or partial message.  In fact, scripture tells us that the god of this world blinds the minds of unbeliever to keep them from seeing the light...

What is the gospel?  Growing up, Jacob Rohrer heard about Jesus dying for his sins so he could go to heaven.  However, he’s come to see that this way of thinking is not only wrong, but goes against what Jesus himself taught.  Listen in to Rohrer as he explains the five elements of the gospel, including (1) repentance, (2) kingdom, (3) Jesus’ death, (4) Jesus’ resurrection, and (5...

We hear a particular narrative over and over: “Gay teen courageously comes out to Christian parents and faces consequences.” This is the hero’s journey of the early 21st century. From gay pride marches to hit songs to movies and TV shows, this story is ubiquitous in our culture. For example, I used to listen to the Moth podcast and heard story after story championing the gay life...