The Further Up, Further In Podcast

As we resume our reflection on the third big theme of the podcast - pursue fidelity in all things, faithfulness is essential - we turn to the study of theology, which we could think of as faithfulness of belief. We look at what theology is, some of the reasons why the American church at times seems wary of it, and at two theological issues as examples to illustrate why it matters.

In this fourth and final episode in our advent arc, examining Matthew 1-2 and some of the nativity account from Luke, we look at the response of various people to the birth of Jesus, focusing here on Simeon, Anna and Herod, for how we respond to the child born to be King is all important.

In our third advent episode we continue our examination of Matthew 1-2 and of some of the nativity account in Luke by looking at the famous stories of the Shepherds and the Magi.

In our second advent episode, we reflect on the story in Matthew of the angel telling Joseph about the miracle of the virgin birth and of the importance of the child Mary will give birth to, along with the Luke passage that narrates Gabriel's visitation with Mary to do the same.

This is the first of our Advent episodes as we take a break for the month of December from our larger episode arc to reflect on Matthew 1-2 together (augmented by some passages from Luke as well). Today, we look at Matthew 1:1-17 and the genealogy of Jesus, which surprisingly, has quite a bit to tell us. 

This episode explores the connection between the law and love, and how the weightier matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness - are also the primary forms of love. 

As we transition to the third big theme of the podcast - pursue fidelity in all things, faithfulness is essential - we look at a lesson I learned from Nicholas Wolterstorff, that God calls us to be faithful, not different. To be faithful will often require us to be different, but being different for the sake of being different has no intrinsic value. 

As we wrap up our episodes on our second main theme - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational and authoritative - we reflect on some of the things we do and don't control in our pursuit of spiritual growth, and talk about the importance of reading the Bible as a way of putting ourselves in the way of grace.

This episode tackles the difficult question, when is a church, not a church? It looks at the three marks of the church and focuses on the central importance of the preaching of the Word, before examining how both modernist progressivism and postmodern progressivism have impacted some churches and denomnations to that they often do not preach the Bible.

If we are going to stand under the Word of God and be corrected and calibrated by it, then a big part of that will be understanding the role of the law. In this episode we'll overview the function of the law in the Bible and how it applies to our pursuit of a deeper walk with Christ.

As we dig into our second big theme - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational and authoritative - we explore the idea of standing under the Word of God and discuss two key questions we can use when studying the scriptures to understand better what they principally teach.

This episode wraps up our two week discussion of reasons to take the Bible's claim to speak for God seriously by examining one of my favorite arguments for the Bible's validity, what we could call the unity & diversity argument.  c 

As we begin our reflection on the second main theme of the podcast - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational and authoritative - we begin by examining reasons why we should take the Bible's claims to speak for God seriously.

As we transition from the first big theme of this podcast - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian Faith is rational - to the second - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational - we pause for an episode at the crossroads to discuss a few things, including a candid look at some of the less intellectual but perhaps more direct reasons why we tend as a church to linger in the shallo...

As we wrap up our reflection on general revelation and beyond that our first big theme - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian Faith is rational - we look at the argument from religious experience, the aesthetic argument and the argument from human longings. Having done this, we briefly overview the pros and cons of these kinds of arguments as we prepare to move from reflecting on general re...

This episode continues our discussion of embracing the life of the mind and applying that to general revelation, and it overviews three more arguments for God's existence - the cosmological argument, the moral law argument and the argument from human goodness. 

This episode begins a three episode arc in which we contemplate some of the benefits of applying the life of the mind to general revelation, mainly through considering some of the classic arguments for God's existence. We begin in this episode with what is often called the telelogical argument for God's existence, though often such arguments now are simply called arguments from intelligent design.

This episode overviews the hallmarks of Modernism and Postmodernism and how the rise of these things helps to explain the retreat of the American Church from the life of the mind. It also overviews some of internal reasons why the church retreated from the life of the mind, since there are and were reasons why this happened that can't be laid at the feet of any outside force or factor.

In this second part of our two week overview of our intellectual history, we examine some of the things that led contemporary western culture away from the central tenets of Christian theism, and at the initially optimistic and later more pessimistic ideas that emerged. As we introduce the concepts of Modernism and Postmodernism, we are preparing to look more closely next week at the retreat of th...

As we continue to discuss embracing the life of the mind as part of our pursuit of a deeper Christian life, we survey our intellectual history in an effort to understand some of the things that have brought us where we are. In this first part of a two week overview of that history, we look at some of our classical and Christian roots. 

Episode 3 begins our exploration of the first of our four big themes - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian faith is rational - as we discuss the importance of both knowing God and loving God, and of embracing both mind and heart in our walk with God. 

Do you sometimes think that there must be more to the Christian faith, that the American church seems pretty shallow? Do you want to pursue a deeper walk with Christ? This inaugural episode of The Further Up, Further In Podcast will introduce you to the vision of the podcast and begin to answer your most pressing question, "Will this be worth your time?" This is part one of the two-part podcast in...

The waters of the Christian faith are deep, and yet all too often, the American church is content to remain in the shallows. In this episode - the second part of the two-part introduction to the podcast - we talk a little bit about the shallowness of the church and reiterate the invitation to go deeper.