The Whole Counsel

For the last several weeks, we have considered the sweet command of Hebrews 12:2: looking, fixing, focusing our eyes upon the author of finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ. Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James have previously discussed the foundational principles necessary for obeying this command. Today, they will address whom we are blessed to look towards. Have you considered what a blessing it is t...

Last week we looked at the Greek word apherontes eis, which translated literally is “away from look toward.” And we shared how we must look away from certain things if our eyes are going to focus on Jesus Christ. This week Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James share specific things we must look away from. First on the list is the temptation to long for the old life. This common refrain is found in the b...

Last week Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James introduced our new series that will, by the grace of God, help us walk closer to Jesus in 2025 than we did in 2024. We will spend a great deal of time focusing on that sweet command to "look unto Christ."This week we are still getting help from Isaac Ambrose's book "Looking Unto Christ" (details on the giveaway linked below). In order to look toward an obj...

Even the sweetest commands from our King are still commands. We may be tempted to view commands such as "Do not kill" as more weighty than the command "Look unto Christ." But both are spoken from the same authority, God himself. Therefore, they are worthy of the same attention, effort, and obedience. For the next few weeks, we will be discussing the command to look unto Jesus. There are several pa...

"If my God preserves you, and preserve you he must, or else you are not his; if he will keep you, and keep you he will if you have committed your souls to his faithful guardianship, that an honor awaits you!" These words by Charles Spurgeon perfectly summarize the objective promise for every believer in Christ. God has promised that every Christian will finish this life clinging to Christ. He has...

Last week we mentioned a new series with Teddy James and Jeremy Walker. This week we decided to postpone that series because Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James recorded a two-episode series for the conclusion of 2024 and beginning of 2025. John and Acey Floyd recorded a series focusing on Union with Christ several months ago. As we said during those episodes, there was much more we could say on the t...

See Jordan’s study, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/jordan-thomas Over the last three weeks, Dr. John Snyder and Jordan Thomas have been discussing the ultimate jewel of the Christian life. We all know that Christ is to be the precious treasure of our individual and corporate Christian lives, but sometimes we mu...

See Jordan’s study, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/jordan-thomas If we are going to see growth in our Christian lives, we must learn to see Christ through the entirety of the Bible. When the New Testament was written, the writers constantly pointed back to the Old Testament to make Jesus known. When Paul tells...

See Jordan’s study, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church - https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/jordan-thomas This week we continue our series with Jordan Thomas discussing the greatest treasure of the Christian life. If our eyes are fixed on anything other than Christ, we are looking in a fatal direction. While this sounds very noble and spiritual, it is...

We are incredibly thankful for each of you that follow our podcasts, participate in our studies, and support our work. We could not do this work without you. As we are looking to finish 2024 and prepare for 2025, we wanted to take a few minutes to let you know what your support helped us achieve over the last 12 months. To see the full 2024 Ministry Report from Media Gratiae, visit www.report.medi...

https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/christ-our-treasure Those of you who have followed Media Gratiae for a time will know Jordan Thomas. He is a contributor to both Behold Your God studies and has a study of his own produced by Media Gratiae. Released earlier this year, Christ Our Treasure: Enjoying the Preeminence of Jesus in the Local Church, is an 8-week study examining how the local chur...

One of our favorite episodes to record every year is our annual book recommendations. This year, Dr. John Snyder and Acey Floyd agreed to a three-book limit. If you have ever watched one of our book recommendation episodes before, you will not be surprised to learn they both cheated (but only slightly). Rather than creating a long list of links in the show description this year, we will just have...

https://www.mediagratiae.org/true-hearted-discipleship Last week Dr. John Snyder introduced you to our newest study, The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship. The eight-week study is written and taught by Dr. Ian Hamilton. As a further introduction to the study, we wanted to give you a preview of the video sessions. So this week we present to you session one, Where Authentic Disciplesh...

https://www.mediagratiae.org/true-hearted-discipleship Behind the scenes at Media Gratiae we have been busily working on our next study, The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship by Ian Hamilton. This eight-week study focuses on a topic near and dear to Dr. Hamilton’s heart. The study will be available for purchase on November 15, but we wanted to give you a bit of the heart behind the...

This year our podcast happens to be published on Reformation Day, October 31. We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and present to you a special episode commemorating the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to Wittenburg Castle Church. To do so, we are presenting to you Session 9 from our study, The Church: Her Nature, Authority, Purpose and Worship. In this session, Dr. Jeffrey Johns...

Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges - https://www.mediagratiae.org/lessons-from-judges For the last three weeks Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James have been discussing the book of Judges. Our desire has been to make you aware of how much this book speaks to our current era. To conclude this short series we want to present you with session one of our study, Living with the True God: Lessons...

Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges - https://www.mediagratiae.org/lessons-from-judges The refrain of Judges is “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” When we stop to consider this statement it can become quite shocking. Gideon, a man who feared God, shaped a golden ephod and led his family into idolatry for generations. Jephthah committed human sacrifice. Eleven tribes attempte...

Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges - https://www.mediagratiae.org/lessons-from-judges The book of Judges is an extraordinary book. It records times of great peril, eras of God’s grace, and heartbreaking seasons of idolatry. The people of Israel wrongly believed that since the battle for Canaan was over their battle against idolatry and sin was as well. As New Testament believers reading...

The book of Judges can be a difficult book to understand. There are scenes and characters that confuse and alarm us. There are actions of God’s people that bother us. Sadly this can result in many Christians misreading or completely neglecting the book. But we must remember this is part the inspired word of God (2 Tim 3:16). God considers it necessary for the Christian life, and so must we. That b...

This week we are presenting a special episode to you. Several years ago Andrew Davies, a long-time friend of Media Gratiae and contributor to our Behold Your God studies, visited New Albany, MS. While he was here we asked him to read select sermons preached during the Great Awakening. One of those sermons was originally preached by William Chalmer Burns. Burns was a contemporary of Andrew Bonar an...

During the gold rush of the 1800’s, men packed up their families and moved out west in search of treasure. Friends and family may have thought them crazy for taking such risks on the small chance of riches. But no one would have faulted the same men if they suddenly found a vein of gold and refused to eat or sleep until they have dug to the end of that vein. When it comes to studying Scripture, it...

In this week's episode, Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James engage in an imaginative discussion. What if we could bring back masters in their fields like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, George Whitefield, Albert Einstein, or Hudson Taylor to teach us in Northeast Mississippi? If they were to offer tutoring near our homes, we'd do whatever necessary to be present and prepared to learn from them. As previou...

This week, Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James continue our series on Proverbs 2, examining our biblical response to wisdom. As a refresher, we've explored what it means to welcome wisdom into our lives, treasure her, and turn our ears to her. Now, we focus on how we can incline our hearts to wisdom. Inclining our hearts is an active exercise. We'll never achieve this if we approach wisdom lazily. The...

A few weeks ago, we had Jeremy Walker on The Whole Counsel, and he introduced us to an organization in Zambia called Hope Project. This ministry works to take children off the streets and provide them with four pillars of support: physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual. We were so moved by Hope Project's work and ministry that we wanted to have its founder, Gilbert Mulubwa, on the podcast...

Are you listening? It is a common refrain of parents to children, teachers to students, etc. But it is an incredibly important question to us to ask ourselves when it comes to wisdom’s voice. As our highlighted instruction tells us, we must be actively listening, bending our ears, or making sure our ears are cleaned out, to hear her voice. The battle for truly listening to God’s voice is a constan...