The Cosmic Car Wash

Two iconic names from scripture. Eden was the paradise of God, where men and women were commissioned by God to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and to care for it and ensure that it flourishes. Babylon was the result of men's attempts to make a name for themselves, to defy God's commands while still trying to enjoy the blessing and prosperity of Eden. Babylon was characterized by violen...

Rated PG for "Palingenesia". It's a Greek word used a couple times in the Bible that means "Genesis Again." In Matthew 19:28, Jesus said, "I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon His glorious throne..." That's been God's intention all along, from the instant that Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden in Eden, to bring all of us back, as many as are willing, in...

In Ephesians 1:18, the Apostle Paul prayed that the hearts of his readers would be flooded with light so we can understand the confident hope God has given to those He called. The term captured our attention and we dove in to see what this verse has for us and not just who we should be but how we go about allowing God's light to flood us. What a great discussion!

Jesus told His students in Luke 17:21 that the Kingdom of God doesn't come with visible signs (yet at least) but rather the Kingdom of God is inside us. There's an unshakable practicality to Jesus' words that is often lost or discarded in favor of a more philosophical or ideological interpretation. But Jesus was eternally serious when He told His followers about His Kingdom and His words have not...

Building on the theme of last week's episode, 8 Bags of Gold, and the understanding that God has transmitted to each one of us His character, His nature, His existence, and His very life, the obvious next question is (or rightfully should be), "Okay, so what do we do with it?" Paul offers an excellent summary of what life should look like for those who claim to follow Jesus and are living in exube...

Okay, I'm just gonna say it...I think this is our best episode yet! We're talking about the parable of the three servants from Matthew 25:14. We called this one 8 Bags of Gold. Maybe it was silver, maybe it was "talents". Whatever you want to call it, there's some serious depth here that we get into. This is a parable about way more than stewardship of money or actual talents like singing, public...

Racial reconciliation, mental health, emotional resilience, elevation of the arts, healing of the planet, and on and on. The things we're after are, for the most part, good things. The problem comes when we pursue these things as ends unto themselves. We make idols of so many things and lose sight of what it means to have a King who rightfully rules everything everywhere. These and infinitely more...

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told His disciples about things that would happen in the near and in the distant future. After discussing wars, earthquakes, and famines he warned them to watch out for the real horrors - that our hearts would be weighed down by the cares of this life and that we'd grow dull and not be ready for His return. He told us to pray for the strength to prevail against these t...

Spiritual formation is a crucial part of life in the Kingdom of God. What is supposed to happen between the cross and the resurrection? By that we mean, once we "get saved", what do we do until Jesus returns to make all things new? The answer is: to grow more and more like Jesus every single day. The Eden Constitution is a way of saying, "This is how things are supposed to work in the Kingdom of G...

Everyone runs to all sorts of things to find comfort, refreshing, healing, connection, adventure, etc. But when those things distract us from the God who created us and loves us, they become a danger. What do we really need?  ***Thanks to The Chosen for allowing us to use this short clip.

Last week we talked about Shameless Audacity, the posture of living that asks ostentatious things of God and sees the hand of God move consistently in our lives. This week we cover the polar opposite of shameless audacity, Religious Indifference. What causes people to grow cold and unfeeling toward God, genuine moves of His presence and glory, and eventually could lead to us saying to God what the...

In Luke 11 Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. This is the passage of the Bible that contains the universally recognized "Lord's Prayer." But we stop reading too soon and don't go on to the other remarkable things Jesus teaches us about prayer, how to pray with shameless audacity. The Lord's Prayer doesn't end with "Amen." It continues on into a lifestyle, a posture of appealing to God on the...

The malaise, the funk, the fog. Anyone who has been a follower of Jesus for a while can tell you that sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, it just settles in. It makes it hard to pray, hard to read Scripture, sometimes even hard to believe in God at all. Perhaps the most dastardly side effect of the fog is the isolation it causes. We don't want to talk about it with others for fear of what the...

Our hearts are the new Eden, the place where God makes His home and where we meet with Him. Just like Adam and Eve were commissioned by God to work the garden, we are commissioned by God to work with His Holy Spirit to guard our hearts, to intentionally push off the effects of our culture, and cultivate the Eden of our hearts. This is a monumental task because the world, our flesh, and the devil a...

The tagline at the end of every good Christian prayer. But maybe there's more to it than that. There has to be, right? God isn't waiting for the magic words at the end of our monologue before He decides whether to bless our food, give us the winning lottery ticket, or see us sweetly off to sleep. If we're truly going to pray "In Jesus' Name," there's a commitment to a lifestyle that must accompany...

In our second attempt at this topic (because technology was not our friend the first time around), we talk about the fact that we are all "the one", the one sheep that wandered off and for whom the Good Shepherd left the 99 others to come search for us. As Isaiah reminded us, ALL of us are sheep that have gone astray and God came and found us. But once we're found and brought back into His Kingdom...

The Garden, Eden, where God and people lived in unbroken relationship with one another. It's where we started and it's a pattern and place that shows up throughout Scripture. But it's not just history, it's present reality. Israel envisaged Eden in the Tabernacle and then the Temple, places where God's space and our space overlap. However, in a post-resurrection world, where God's Spirit has been...

Building on a theme that started to develop at the end of last week's episode, we discuss the implications of Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's masterpiece..." The Greek word translated in the New Living Translation as "masterpiece" is "Poiema," It's where we get our word "poem." We are God's poem! How amazing is that?! Let's dive in and see what this means for us.

God's charge to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to take charge over creation was given before sin entered the picture. What does that mean for us today? Work is part of the blessing, not part of the curse. The Eden Mandate is to go into our world and bring order where there's chaos, healing where there's pain, justice where there's injustice, and life whe...

Today we dive into the message of the Great Renewal, how it came to us, who we were before, and how the true Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed our lives. We have John Eldredge, NT Wright, Dallas Willard, CS Lewis, and others to thank for helping us along the way. It's the best news that can ever be and we can rest assured that it's absolutely true. It's written all across the pages of scripture a...

Too often our dignified and stodgy religion, our adherence to a self-image of "I'm good," gets in the way of us getting to Jesus. When Jesus walked the dusty roads of Israel during His earthly ministry, desperate people always found a way to get to Him. King David abandoned his kingly robes and danced with reckless abandon as the Ark of the Covenant returned to Jerusalem. The woman who had a 12 ye...

Back after 2 weeks, we're catching up and as the title indicates, ruminating about the Kingdom of God. This is after all a podcast about the Kingdom of God. His Kingdom is closer than we realize and punching through the thin veil that separates our space from God's space is a matter of faith, hope, and love. Please connect with us at info@thecosmiccarwash.com if you want to know more about God's K...

For so long we imagined God as way up "there" while we're down here, though if pressed, we couldn't define where "there" is. Heaven and the Kingdom of God were very nebulous and far removed from our lives here and now. But the more we read scripture, considering how God has revealed His plan to redeem humanity and make all creation new again, we see that God is literally closer than our skin, clos...

It's a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, like beach balls at a concert, like t-shirts at a game, like cookies at a frat party, like... Okay, you get the picture. In light of Good Friday and Easter weekend that just passed, we dive into some other aspects of Jesus' crucifixion and its implications for us. The hill He died on is the hill we're called to die on. As Dallas Willard said, "Jesus did...

Somewhat building on last week's theme of Position and Posture, today we're talking about Living With Open Hands. We cover some references to hands in the Bible and the significance of hands in our lives. It's important for us as we look forward to the coming Kingdom of God that we don't grab hold of this life to squeeze all the satisfaction we can get out of it. Instead we should offer God everyt...