Word of Life Church Podcast

Hagar was an Egyptian slave treated harshly by her Hebrew mistress. But God saw her. The Hebrews were slaves treated harshly by their Egyptians masters. But God saw them. God doesn't see ethnicity or nationality. God sees suffering. God doesn't care about ethnicity or nationality. God cares about suffering.

What is the book of Revelation? It is the prophetic critique of the Roman Empire, and as such it is the divine critique of all empires. Empires are rich and powerful nations that believe they have a divine right to rule the nations and a manifest destiny to shape world according to their will and are willing to use the means of death to do so. God is opposed to these empires. What they claim for t...

Isaac. The middle child of the Patriarchs. The quiet one stuck between Abraham and Jacob. Abraham is the father of faith -- the man with whom God made his covenant. Jacob is the man who became Israel -- his twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. But what about Isaac? The boy named Laughter. The promised son of Abraham and Sarah's old age? There's not much said about Isaac. He rarely speak...

The violent lust for thrones of power is a familiar theme in the human story. And it's a story that is told over and over in the course of the Old Testament—this game of thrones. The story of Israel's first three kings alone is filled with tales of murder, lust, and deceit. The game of thrones is the way of the world. But is there a better way?

The church in Western Europe and North America is struggling with deep disappointment. We are disappointed with the failure of the Christendom project. The grand attempt to produce a continent of Christian civilization through the apparatus of the state is either dead or dying. It appears that secularism has already won in Europe and will win in North America. So we either deny it (more easily don...

"Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams." -The Prophet Joel "You may say that I'm a dreamer." -John Lennon Brian Zahnd tells the story of three dreams: 1. In New York looking for the faith of Abraham. 2. In Zurich shopping for shoes with Karl Barth. 3. In Calcutta riding in a taxi with Mother Teresa.

Following Jesus is not a matter of religious preference or memorizing a set of God-facts or preparing for the afterlife. Following Jesus is a journey with surprises, challenges, and changing terrain. Our journey with Jesus is much like long distance hiking, requiring waypoints to guide the way, waypoints such as: training, rhythm, obstacles, companionship, flexibility, and being present.

David and Goliath. The underdog prevailing against impossible odds. The boy who slays the giant. This archetypal story captures our imagination like few other stories in Scripture. But how do we reconcile this admittedly violent story with the Son of David who bears the moniker of Prince of Peace?

Derek Vreeland interviews Brian Zahnd on his new book, A Farewell To Mars.

Jesus is ruling above all powers and authorities in this age and in the age to come. Jesus saw time in terms of two ages. This present evil age is a time where things do not always go right, but in the age to come, God will make all things right. The secret is that the age to come has broken into this present age through the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We find ourselves living in between...

Jesus promised to ask the Father to give to his followers the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. We believe the Spirit is the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son, but where do we find him at work in the world? We need look no further than the church. The Spirit is working in harmony with Jesus to build the church, to fill the church with the holy attitude of God. Where the church...

Whether we find ourselves on the mountaintop or in the valley low when it comes to our faith in Christ, Jesus is always faithful. But what do we do when this statement seems suspect? What about doubt? Looking to Jesus' encounter with Thomas after the resurrection, may we learn a valuable truth about how to deal with our doubt.

Jesus said, "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” In other words, those who are grounded in the truth, or love the truth, put themselves in a place where they can hear the life-giving words of Jesus. Truth, as reality from God's point of view, does not shift or change according to human preference; it exists on it own. The question followers of Jesus must answer is, "Do you love the...

What if you could go back in time and talk to your younger self? What would you say? I've thought about this a lot. There's a lot I would want to say, but most of it couldn't be heard. But the one thing I would say for sure is this: Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid! It's what the present says to the past. It's what heaven says to earth. It's what Jesus says to us over and over...don 't be afraid!

In Numbers chapter 15 a guy is caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath and is stoned to death. In John chapter 5 Jesus works on the Sabbath by healing and instructs the healed man to carry his bed. Those most committed to the Bible (Torah) want to kill Jesus. There is a way of reading the Bible that will instruct you to stone Jesus. Don't read the Bible that way! That wrong reading of the Bible is...

With the coming of the Son of Man the world changed. There’s a new charter. A new divine edict. Ever since Jesus re-founded the world at the cross and called humanity to organize itself around an axis of love expressed in mercy and forgiveness, a new moral law has been established in the cosmos that will not allow nations to forever oppose God’s will. As the Hebrew prophets first revealed long ago...

Ancient wisdom speaks of three prime virtues: the true, the good, and the beautiful. These virtues are not a means to some other end (which would be a lesser end) -- rather these virtues are self justifying; they are an end in themselves; they are the telos of our lives. Contemporary Christianity has placed an emphasis on two of these three virtues. From the truth of Christ we have developed Chris...

Brad Jersak is an author and teacher based in Abbotsford, BC, where he attends Fresh Wind Christian Fellowship and serves as Reader at All Saints of North America Monastery. His heart is to share the good news that God is Love and that God’s love was shown to us perfectly in Jesus of Nazareth. Through his books and seminers, Brad teaches that anyone can learn to hear God’s voice through the simple...

Brad Jersak is an author and teacher based in Abbotsford, BC, where he attends Fresh Wind Christian Fellowship and serves as Reader at All Saints of North America Monastery. His heart is to share the good news that God is Love and that God’s love was shown to us perfectly in Jesus of Nazareth. Through his books and seminers, Brad teaches that anyone can learn to hear God’s voice through the simple...

Jesus was put to death by the Roman Empire (skillfully manipulated by the Sanhedrin). What the Roman Empire did (and every empire does) is shape the world according to its will. Empires makes disciples of all nations. They do this by using the power and fear of death. But on Easter a new empire arrived -- an empire from God appointed for the toppling of all the old empires of death. On Easter Jesu...

"God is dead." Friedrich Nietzsche made the saying famous. But Nietzsche borrowed it from Hegel. And Hegel took it from a line in an old Lutheran hymn for Holy Saturday. O Great Desolation, God, yes God, is dead! The hymn doesn't mean that the God who is Father in the Trinity suffered death. But it does saying something very bold: Whatever it means for a human being to suffer and die, God in Chris...

When Jesus and Pilate meet, it is one of the most epic moments in history. As it turns out, it’s not the trial of Jesus in the court of the Roman governor; it’s the trial of the Roman Empire itself (and all systems of violent power) in the court of God. But the enduring scandal of the cross is this: Though we believe in Jesus, we also have sympathy for Pilate’s ideas about how to run the world. As...

Success is an idol—the great American idol. Which emphasizes the scandal that Jesus died as a failure. Jesus died as an apparent failure in the eyes of everyone. Yes, we know that Easter changed that perspective, but slow down. We can't rush from Christmas to Easter. We have to take Good Friday on its own terms. If we use Easter to obliterate Good Friday, rather than illuminate Good Friday, we end...

The Cross isn't just one thing with a single meaning. Rather the Cross is where all that is wrong with humankind and the world we've built is dragged into the light, and God's redemptive alternative is offered. Christ crucified is the Lamb of God (the last scapegoat) who takes away the foundational sin of scapegoating.

How did Jesus understand his own death? What purpose did he see in it? Did Jesus have a "theology of cross"? In fact, he did. A few days before Good Friday Jesus said his crucifixion and death would accomplish three things: 1. Judge the world. 2. Drive out Satan. 3. Reorganize the world.