The Yellow Balloons Podcast

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this season Tim Dunn and Joey Willis walk through the Book of Ecclesiastes, verse by verse, discussing what is being revealed about the nature of God, our world, and our most adequate response. The book focuses on one simple fact: no matter how hard we try, there is no certainty. So grab your Bible, some note taking supplies, and pull up thebiblesays.com commentary as we take a deep dive into t...

In this final episode, we revisit the most famous of the Hebrews passages: the hall of faith. There is a great cloud of witnesses, along with Jesus, watching us, cheering us on, hoping for our wise choices to add value to the Kingdom of God. We can achieve this by allowing brotherly love to continue. We are also called to get our team together and go outside the gate, extending brotherly love to t...

We conclude our robust conversation on Hebrews Thirteen. Starting in verse 10, we begin to see the conclusions of The Book of Hebrews. We have an altar from which we have been invited to participate, at least in part. We look at what this passage about the altar would have sounded like to a Jewish audience. Exploring the Old Testament as well, we discover a little more about our place in this worl...

In this episode, we continue looking at the list in Hebrews Thirteen. The list lays out a few ways in which we can steward the opportunities of life. This list is available for everybody. No one can stop you from being great. It is a choice available to all of us. We will also take a view of contentment, one in which our feeling of gratitude is not connected to our circumstances. The Lord is our h...

We continue in Chapter Thirteen of The Book of Hebrews. We are exhorted to follow the path that will make us complete in every good work. Hebrews helps show us how by giving us a list of ways to live wisely and steward our place in God’s Kingdom. For example, we look at the value of sexual unity and its importance in establishing healthy relationship practices. Embedded in the list of things to do...

In this episode, we talk about love. Our opportunity to know God by faith is so remarkable the angels look at us to observe how we do it. And loving one another is a way to bear witness to the glory of God between one another. As we explore love, we will look at one significant difference between agape and phileo. The Bible implores us to continue in brotherly love, to be hospitable to strangers,...

We dive into the final chapter of The Book of Hebrews, Chapter Thirteen. As we go through it, we will review previous chapters and discuss how they relate to what the last chapter has to say. Hebrews not only tells us what to do but gives us examples of how to do it. Our decisions have a massive impact on who we become and what happens to us in the long run. Enduring discipline is not fun but it b...

In this episode, we take a deeper look at what The Book of Hebrews says about shame. We start by exploring the kind of shame Jesus endured and the call on our lives to join Him in both His glory and his suffering. Jesus encountered a lot of pain during his time on the earth. He was betrayed by his close friends, arrested, denied by another close friend, and ultimately killed. Pilate chose politica...

In this episode we look at one more “better statement”, the seventh in The Book of Hebrews, as well as a pivotal and important verse. We explore what it means to despise shame and how to apply it to the life we steward. The author of Hebrews wants us to strive to look more like Jesus. There is joy set before us. We are called to pursue that joy, talk about it with one another, and ponder it often....

In this episode, we look at some characters in the Hall of Faith found in Hebrews eleven. What can we learn from these characters? What made them so noteworthy? What opportunity do we have to be faith superheroes? We are all given an inheritance. But it takes courage to possess it and wisdom to steward it. When we walk in the spirit we fulfill the law, discover the joys and benefits of obedience,...

We begin a big picture overview of the last several chapters of The Book of Hebrews, and explore the meaning behind the phrase “the fear of God”. Elsewhere in Scripture, it says, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. So understanding what is meant by fearing God is crucial for living a wise life. It affects our concept of God’s love and informs our approach to pleasing Him. In light o...

In this episode, we find ourselves wrestling with some tricky passages in chapter Ten of The Book of Hebrews. They are tricky because of our cultural predisposition, the ways we think and understand the world. To help unlock their meaning, we have to step into the cultural context for which they were written. Jesus invites us into greatness. But we are often hard of hearing. We are being offered s...

We start to see a new structure develop within Hebrews that brings the book into fuller life. We talked about the first three better statements in the last episode and in this episode we explore the next three betters: Better son, under a better administration, within a better world. The whole book of Hebrews is pointing us toward maturity, a better way of living, and a true perspective that binds...

In this episode, we rush headlong into some of the most controversial passages in the Bible. A possible interpretation arises to address the paradox found in many of these challenging teachings. We then move to Hebrews, Chapter Ten, which tells us we should live our lives in the throne room. We are relational creatures. We don’t thrive by becoming isolated and trying to fix ourselves. We ought to...

In this episode we look at Hebrews Eight and the early section of Chapter Nine. We are introduced to the idea that the tabernacle is a copy of heaven, a hint at the Divine. A promise that is further revealed in the presence of Jesus. We are discovering why Jesus is the better priest, better sacrifice, and better covenant. And what that means for us. There are many contrasts with the old ways and t...

In this episode, we continue exploring The Book of Hebrews by looking back to a passage in Deuteronomy. God has always wanted what is best for His people. Moving the law from a stuffy, external obligation into a matter of the heart is the big idea all of Scripture leads us to. To tease this out further, we go through an overview of the history of the Jews and take a look at the New Covenant. Jesus...

In this episode we continue to explore the implication of Jesus as our high priest. It helps to start with the end in mind, to examine what spiritual maturity is and what the ministry of Jesus as high priest does for us. A key part of the process is to wrestle with our guilt and overcome it by boldly approaching the throne of grace. The great gift of Jesus as the high priest is that it gives us ac...

We continue talking about the life of Melchizedek, exploring what lessons and guidelines can be gleaned from this priest of the Most High God. We turn to Genesis 14 for insights. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the priestly calling, the order of Melchizedek, and we are empowered as His stewards to act on his behalf in this world. Jesus’ ministry for us never ceases. He is always on the job. G...

In this episode we look through Hebrews chapter 5, 6 and 7. Central to the message of Hebrews, Jesus is both a son and a priest. His roles inform our roles. As heirs and stewards of His Kingdom, we must look to who He is to discover what we ought to do. There is a window of repentance, a time to choose a true perspective and turn toward a reliance on God. We end this episode exploring lessons from...