Episode 8: Resurrection People

When Jesus was resurrected, he emerged victorious over death and hell. He paid the penalty for human sin in full, once and for all time. His resurrection both vindicated and validated him as Messiah and Lord of all. Theologian N.T. Wright explains the implications for the church in that the early Christians identified themselves as a resurrection people. For them, and for us, Christ’s resurrection radically altered the relationship between the Christian and the world in which we live. A resurrection people engage the world as if the Kingdom of God is already here…because it is! This means we expect to see dead things come to life in human hearts and lives. We expect to see restoration where there once was devastation; we expect to see beauty where there once was deformity; we expect to see safety where there once was danger and joy where sorrow once reigned. A resurrection people look for God’s gold in this world and we find it!

Episode 7: Prepare for Battle: Lenten Gold

Today’s episode will focus on the spiritual battle Christ faced in the days leading up to his death and on the battle we, as his people, continue to face in this world. Often, we frame our spiritual struggles in terms of US versus the evil in the WORLD or US versus our sinful FLESH. Indeed, many of our battles do take place in those realms; however, there is a third, and significant, battleground that Jesus faced and that we do as well. The uncomfortable truth is that the Bible makes clear that there is are actual evil forces, known as demons and Satan, working against God’s encroaching kingdom at all times.

Episode 6: Let it Die: Lenten Gold

Today we focus on areas of our lives which we’ve held back from God because, honestly, they’re too precious to relinquish. Pastor Tim Keller often refers to the human heart as an idol factory, by which he means that we relentlessly worship the wrong things. We misplace our allegiance, our life’s work, our focus, our adoration and – ultimately – the love of our hearts on things that make us feel secure, significant, and temporarily satiated. Instead of giving ourselves – and our worship -- to the Lord, we hide away these idols for ourselves like kids with a secret candy stash. The tricky thing about idols is that they aren’t bad things, necessarily. In fact, they’re often really great, God-blessed, things that we’ve put in the wrong position in our lives because they are easier to control. Today, we go idol hunting!

Episode 5: Listen Up: Lenten Gold

Despite the fact that our ears work overtime in this age in which so many are competing for our attention, this over-stimulation has actually caused us to listen less versus more and to listen worse versus better. The good news is that listening is a skill that can be learned and re-learned. It can be cultivated simply through intentional practice. Lent is an invitation to quiet ourselves, put away our distracting devices, unplug from all the noise that takes up valuable real estate in our brains, and turn toward God, turn toward others and turn toward ourselves in order to offer the hospitality of our listening ears. Who knows what this "pocket of possibility" will hold!

Episode 4: Emptiness: Lenten Gold

There's empty and then there's empty. One emptiness leads to death and the other leads to life. Today's episode focuses on a certain woman who emptied herself at the feet of Jesus and found that she was filled with more than she'd ever imagined.

She carried the burden of her sin to him, but she carried so much more as well. She carried her worldly possessions, her pride, her reputation, her desire for approval and acceptance, her future, her past, her love, her pain. She carried whatever a human soul contains and she emptied herself of all of it, laying it down at his feet and at his mercy. She realized, for the first time in her life, that she was face-to-face with the one Person who she could trust with all of herself. He sees it all – what makes her worthy and worthless. Even with this knowledge, he welcomes her, he allows for intimacy, he responds to her tears and her touch. At his feet, she knew she could not – and would not – hold anything back.

Episode 3: Step into God's Reality: Lenten Gold

Lent offers us a beautiful opportunity to have our own oppressed imaginations freed so that we can live in the world of God’s salvation. All of the competing realities we forge for ourselves will crush us under their weight. They aren’t life-giving, they have no capacity to heal or to hold or to nourish. Those realities only take, they don’t give back. God is offering an exchange of reality if we are only willing to open our hearts.

Episode 2: A Test of Heart: Lenten Gold

Friend, you and I have choices to make that decide what kind of people we become. We are not unthinking, hapless beings whose destinies are predetermined and outside of our own influence. God has provided us with free will and expects us to use it for goodness and right-ness in this life. God’s image implanted in us is at least partially reflected by our ability to choose, to create, and to order. We assess our sins in order to uncover and isolate the choices we’re making that lead to living as our false selves in this world, verses living as the people we were meant to become.

Episode 1: Congratulations to the Hungry: Lenten Gold

Lent is a time to take notice of our hunger and thirst. This season supplies us with opportunity to become mindful of our motivations and to take a long look at those things we spend so much time running after; and, perhaps more importantly, running from. It’s a time to examine what we’re using to satiate ourselves – those things we expend our precious time and energy on that are not the kind of bread which our souls really need.