Christian Questions Bible Podcast

We are so shortsighted.  Most of us can only see as far as the next phone, tablet or computer screen and we really don’t think much about we are seeing – we just want to see it, to have our minds toyed with and occupied, never giving thought to what is beyond and what is lasting.  In our obsession with the occupation of our moments, we have completely lost one of the greatest things that we could ever personally bring to our world. We have lost the value of LEGACY.  Legacy by one definition is “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.”  You see, we have the ability to leave a lasting and positive impression on our world, if we would only realize that potential and act on it.  Elijah is a great example of legacy.  In fact, Elijah left one of the most unique and powerful legacies of any Bible hero.  What legacy did he leave?  How did he do it? There are two important points that need stating as we begin.  First, when we think of leaving a legacy we often think about money – large sums of money - left behind for some specific purpose through which the donor is recognized and honored.  The legacy we are talking about today has nothing to do with dollars and cents but everything to do with a life-changing example.  Elijah left behind a legacy of courage and humility that money can’t buy and THAT is what makes it priceless and even eternal.  Second, in leaving his legacy Elijah didn’t think about or plan his legacy to be one way or another.  No, Elijah simply lived his life and his calling to serve God in a way that others could not.  Though far from perfect, he was bold relentless and faithful and thus created a powerful legacy by simply living for God. One of the happy or sad facts of life is that we all leave a legacy.  We will all be remembered for the things we did or said.  The question is, will those memories of you spark happiness or inspiration or courage in those left behind or will those memories of you spark relief or anger or forgetfulness in those left behind?  Either way, it’s your legacy so you might want to give it some thought, then perhaps you might want to consider what you are saying to the world around you with the statement of your everyday life. Elijah’s everyday life produced remarkable long-term results.  Did you know that the last two verses of the Old Testament were about him and the first event of the New Testament which happened over four hundred years later was about him as well?  Why would that be?  Did you know the work of Elijah was prophesied to be repeated when Jesus came over 2,000 years ago, and that Jesus himself said the work of Elijah would continue at his second coming?  Why would that be? Find out!  Check out our February 20, 2017 podcast, “Elijah (Part III) – The Power of Legacy” and see the stunning significance of Elijah through the ages.  Realizing his amazing impact on the world just might inspire you to be more aware of your own impact on the world.  After all, it is your legacy…      

“The best things in life are free.” That certainly can be true, but as always there is more to the story. Take love - the love that is between a husband and a wife as a for instance. While this love certainly should be free – freely given and freely received, it does have a maintenance schedule attached to it. Funny thing is, we never hear much about love’s maintenance schedule as it can be difficult, demanding and even daunting. The good news is that if we stick with the schedule, the results will literally last a lifetime and the love that we were freely given will have become a most valuable admired and cherished part of our lives! So, how do we get there? How do we learn what to do and how to do it so our love will last a lifetime? The answers to these questions are priceless, so when we began to look for sources that would show us the answers, we found some guidelines for love written by some of the staff at eHarmony.com.  Now for a podcast that goes by the name of Christian Questions, sourcing eHarmony sounds a bit weird and to be honest, it feels a bit weird.  Just know that the reason we followed through with that source is their advice was all clearly backed up (though I think not knowingly) by biblical principles. To begin, with we need to understand the word “love” in the English language has a very broad meaning.  I love mint chocolate chip ice cream, I love my job and I love my wife.  Does this mean my wife is in the same category as ice cream? Not even remotely close, for my wife is THE greatest earthly gift of my entire life!  (By the way, if you had to stop and think about how to answer that question, then I believe we have already begun to identify some of your love and relationship issues!)  Romantic love (which often borders on infatuation), family love, fraternal love and selfless love are all ways of connecting to others and are all fulfilling in their own way.  Making love last a lifetime means we need to consciously work on and maintain the romantic, family AND selfless kinds of love.  Yes, I did say "work on," and I did say "maintain."  No magic, just work. The first eHarmony suggestion was listening...really listening.  This probably requires more effort than you would think, for our world is one massive, shiny technological distraction.  Try this – when your spouse is talking to you about something important, put down your phone or your fork or your tablet, turn off the voices in your head from work or the kids or your sports team and focus your eyes, your mind and your heart on your spouse.  That is listening.  The best part of this approach is actually two-fold:  First, you will actually hear what your spouse is saying and you will open the door to being engaged in his or her story.  Second, your spouse WILL NOTICE you are truly listening and that will give them confidence and trust in you.  Listen!! There is so much more to this!  Please check out our February 13, 2017 podcast, “Can Love Last a Lifetime?” and learn what you can do to make your marriage all that it can be.

Two weeks ago we talked about Elijah and the incredible courage he had toward accomplishing God’s will. We saw him prophesy, take responsibility, wait, perform miracles, wait some more, appear before his greatest enemy and overwhelmingly conquer in a challenge to prove that God is in fact God over all. The next thing we knew, Elijah was running for his life – afraid and feeling alone. Turns out that all his heroics got him was more threats on his life. So, what happens to that courageous prophet of God now? He still must fight but in a different way, for in this next stage of his life God is going to teach him submission. Submission – it does not sound like a characteristic that belongs with courage, but as we will see courage will burn you without submission and submission will burden you without courage.

As Christians, we pin all of our hopes on the belief that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins. This is the bottom line core reason for our coming to Christ for it speaks of him doing something for us out of pure love that we in no way could do for ourselves. To us the sacrifice of Jesus represents the ultimate gift. Those outside of Christianity often look at this belief with disdain and even sarcasm for to them it is foolishness and evidence of a blood thirsty god. One question that is probably not talked about much is about the breadth of Jesus’ sacrifice – who did it cover and how do we know? In the present conditions of our world, the Muslim faith is often thought about and referenced. What do Muslims think of Jesus? While they do believe in him, they don’t see him as a redeemer. Does this mean that they are not covered by his sacrifice? This is obviously a touchy subject, because like it or not, discussing Islam even in the brightest and most positive way can easily lead a variety of emotional responses from upbeat and accepting right down to angry and condemning.  So, to try and avoid the emotional rollercoaster, we laid a foundation. We said from the very beginning that: Our representations of Islam would only be done through the words of Muslims themselves or from third party reporting that we deemed objective. We would view Islam in a positive light and therefore make no room to entertain the interpretations of the minority radical and hateful sects that seem to get all of the attention. We have no plan or desire to attempt to translate the meaning of the Quran – we leave that to those who have studied it and believe in it. Our beliefs regarding Islam are straightforward. We believe that it is not an accurate representation of the God of the Universe or his plans and purposes – but – we do not discount the positive examples of moral living and principles that are shown to us by so many upstanding moral and peaceful Muslims. With the previous foundation in place, our objective was to compare how Muslims view God, Jesus and the Scriptures of the Bible with our own take on these matters as those who believe in that the Bible is the inspired word of God.  As we approached the similarities and differences, we began to be able to clearly view not only perceptions of Jesus’ role but the scripturally-explicit guidelines of his role.  One glaring reality we discussed was the absolute inability to  have both perspectives “be right.”  In the case of these two belief systems, one really does have to choose which perspective (if any) they see worthy of following. In short, we attempted to have a frank conversation about differing beliefs without going down the road of condemning or insulting.  We would encourage you to check out our January 30, 2017 podcast, “Did Jesus Die for Muslims?” and see for yourself why we gave an answer that some may consider surprising to that question.  Hopefully you will listen and tell us what you think!

Courage is perhaps the most underrated, under-appreciated and invisible virtue of our time.  We are so busy complying with the status quo, with watching our words and with following what others say and do on social media that we seem to have forgotten the simple yet powerful virtue of courage.  Courage is stepping up, stepping out and standing against the tide of darkness.  Courage is being what you know you should be when it is unpopular with others.  Courage is having the guts to listen when others only want to argue; it is reaching out to give when others are focused on taking and courage is leading by example when following in anonymity would be so much easier.  Courage, when observed, incites others to stand, it provokes others to act and it plants hope where there is none.  Yes, we need courage, but how do we find it and how do we learn to truly be courageous? Learning courage – that seems like an odd combination of thoughts. Can you go to a class at your local community college, take “Courage 101” and walk out of there all powerful and courageous? Of course not! What you CAN do is look at the lives of those who had courage – not just the courage to perform one mighty feat but those who had the courage that permeated their being – you can look at those lives and learn an incredible amount about how courage works. That’s what we did. We looked at a three-year span in the life of Elijah the prophet to see if we could figure out what made him so amazingly brave. What we found was enlightening! First of all, let’s understand that courage is almost never achieved in the absence of fear and is almost always discovered while acting in the very face of fear. This simple realization can be personally freeing as most of us do not see ourselves as courageous because we feel afraid. Once we understand that fear is part of courage then we can begin to see ourselves in a different light and perhaps allow ourselves to begin to think courageously. A really simple definition of courage we found was “walking towards something you would rather walk away from.” With all of this in mind, let’s begin to look at this prophet Elijah with an all important initial question – why did he need to have courage? In Elijah’s Israel, idol worship had completely overtaken the nation. King Ahab had married Jezebel, a heathen woman who was heartless and horrible in her treatment of others. Between the two of them they reigned over Israel with terror and tyranny. Elijah was called upon to challenge and end this era and he was called upon to do it pretty much by himself. Interestingly Elijah’s name actually means “My God is Jehovah.” So our first lesson on courage is this – courage is summoned when there is a great need. For Elijah’s Israel, their very existence as God’s people had been lost and Elijah was sent to once again stand for the God of all things. Check out our January 23, 2017 podcast, “Elijah, Part I – The Power of Courage.” There are a boatload of other practical lessons to learn on how to live your life courageously not to mention the incredible and inspiring drama of Elijah’s personal story. Don’t miss this episode!

George Orwell’s 1949 book, 1984, was about the future.  It was a scary and suggestive look at what could happen to society if we didn’t protect our freedoms from totalitarianism.  The idea that “Big Brother is watching” was a fearful one, as this fictional story gave the feeling that what we say and think are monitored and forcefully used to keep us in line.  So, here it is, 2017, and the year 1984 passed 33 years ago without Big Brother watching.  But wait a minute – the sexist and alarming thought of Big Brother watching would invade safe spaces and be recognized as a potential trigger for some.  We need to be gender and social status-free in our policing of the masses.  Instead of Big Brother watching, we should say, “Thought interpreting humans are guiding the collective.”  The point is, we have entered a time in history where the policing of thoughts and words has overtaken us in a unique and disturbing way.  What would Jesus do in this environment?  Would he stand in support of it or against it? Would Jesus be politically correct? The short answer to that last question is an emphatic NO!  Jesus never did nor ever will fit into the mold of political anything.  Besides, understanding how to define political correctness is like trying to hit a moving target.  If you look at the history of the phrase, you find that in the early to mid 20th century it was attached to Stalinism and Communism and described a position of holding to the party line regardless of its morality.  Basically, it said that to be politically correct you check your brain at the door and unequivocally comply.  Scary! Fast forward to political correctness today and the question arises, are we still being asked to check our brains at the door and just comply?  Are we being pressed to accept only those things which certain groups have proclaimed "acceptable?"  What if you are offended by specific behaviors labeled as “must accept” behaviors? Now by being offended, I don’t mean you just don’t like something.  For some reason, not liking something seems to have become a trigger for emotional breakdown. I guess I never got the memo on that, because I was taught not liking something meant that you let others have their opinions, you respectfully stand up for your beliefs and you move on.  Being offended has to do with being crossed, regarding your deeply-held firm and timeless beliefs that are way bigger than you. Jesus had a fascinating way to address all of these things.  There are many important areas of life that Jesus didn’t talk much about, such as children and marriage, but what he did say was extraordinarily powerful and relevant.  The key is putting his words in their proper context on these things and then trying to stand for what he stood for, which was spiritual correctness and not political correctness. Jesus also talked about social tolerance, and he did address politics as well.  What did he say and whose side was he on?  Take some time and listen to our January 16, 2017 podcast, “Was Jesus Politically Correct?”  It may help you gain perspective and insight into how and why Jesus stood for certain principles, and how we can do the same while living in a society that has lost its way.  

The ability to compromise is a lost art.  We have become so diverse in our thinking, so polarized in our viewpoints and so set in our conclusions as unequivocally right, that the mere idea of compromise is in some cases viewed as a repulsive evil.  Now look – there are times when compromise should be off the table.  There are times when that which is right and sound should not be approached with the idea of watering it down for the sake of making someone or some group or some sect happy.  But when? When do we stand as an immovable force and when do we bend and acquiesce to include the preferences of others?  Fortunately for us, these very issues existed in biblical times so we actually do have a pretty clear set of guidelines to follow.  Is compromise good?  Yes!  Is compromise bad? Yes!  Let’s figure this out! We often make simple assumptions about those who lived in biblical times.  For instance, when we think of New Testament Christians we think – Jesus’ influence of love and kindness was clear and they all loved, cared for and respected each other.  What a great and harmonious environment to live in!  Now, they did love each other,but what we don’t often realize is that in many cases and for many years, mutual respect was sometimes lacking - and tenuous at best - and had to be learned. It was a hard and arduous lesson to say the least!  We might wonder why that would be – after all, the Apostles were there and they would certainly be able to guide everyone to the higher ground of mutual respect in Christ, right?  Right? Yes and no.  The unconsidered factors here are culture and human weakness.  For some reason, we don’t like to think of the founders of Christianity as having to wrestle with these things as we do, but the happy truth is they did.  They wrestled hard with different cultures colliding under the grace of Christianity and had to do some pretty bold things to make it all work.  To me, as I mentioned, this is a happy truth, for their struggles have become our guidelines.  One of those bold things they struggled with was being willing to compromise.  Here again, we don’t often think of compromise as a bold move; rather, we think of it as a wimpy and spineless one.  In many circumstances, compromise is simply an exit door for the weak, but in other cases such as with the Apostles and elders in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, compromise is a bold and defining decision that can be a primary tool in building a firm and lasting legacy. What the Apostles and elders did in their meeting recorded in Acts was to absorb the tensions of two opposite sides of a major issue, listen, consider discuss and find a mutually-acceptable path to move forward.  How did they do that?  Check out our January 9, 2017 podcast, “How Much Should Christians Compromise?” and follow along with us as we lay out the steps they took, how they took them and how we can do the same thing.  Compromise, in the right place and circumstance, is a bold and powerful answer!

How is it that life seems to go by so fast?  How is it that we more often than not look back on our life - the things we did and what we became - with a measure of regret, knowing that we could have been more or contributed more?  Have you ever stopped to think of what makes life happen?  It is actually a pretty simple equation:  TIME + EXPERIENCES  = LIFE.  Now I know that is an oversimplification, but stay with me.  If we can accept that life is the combination of time and experiences, then wouldn’t solving the issue of making one’s life fuller and more meaningful be easier to understand?  Time is measurable and predictable and we all have the same amount each and every day.  Experiences, be they physical, observational or thoughts, are essentially the sum total of what we do with the time given to us each day.  So, what can we do to make our time and experiences produce a rich, fruitful and contented life?
Many of the thoughts we based this important conversation on were derived from the book, “The Power of Consistency” written by Weldon Long.  Throughout the book, Mr. Long shares pieces of his amazing personal story that chronicle his journey from being a prison inmate to being a terrific dad and an amazingly successful business entrepreneur.  As you might guess, he made this journey by applying specific principles to his life with undying consistency.
Consistency.  If you want to know what you should do differently to change your life, consistency will always show up as a primary and necessary ingredient.  This you can count on.  The opposite is also true - consistency will always be "MIA" – missing in action - when failure to change occurs. This is one of those unwritten life rules that is always true and that no one likes because it takes discipline.  Ugh!  Discipline is another one of those nasty words that upsets our comfort zone.  Face it, if we are going to talk about making our lives better then we need to accept consistency and discipline as parts of our better life vocabulary.
Okay, we want to make our lives better, so where do we start?  Simply stated, we need to start by honestly looking at where we are in our lives right now.  It’s kinda like being in one of those huge malls and trying to get our bearings.  We look at the big mall map that has the red arrow pointing to a specific spot with the message “You are here,” and we can now figure out how to get to where we what to go.  In real life, finding where we are so we know how to get to our destination is obviously a bit more challenging.  To do it we actually need to observe what we daily do and think to keep our equilibrium – to keep ourselves on what we feel is an even keel.  Once we begin to understand what makes us feel even and comfortable we can then truly begin to grasp what our individual next step might be.
What might that next step be?  Check out our January 2, 2017 podcast, “So what should I be doing differently?” and find out.  Listening just might be the beginning of something great!

Christmas has come - the hustle and the bustle, the lights, the music, the trees, the ornaments and the garland.  Christmas has come – Santa and reindeer and elves and Frosty and movies and presents and gift wrap and cards.  Christmas has come – whether you feel you can say “Merry Christmas” or just “Happy Holidays,” we are wishing well to those around us, for it is the season of good cheer and smiles.  Christmas has come – family and dinner and cakes and pies and cookies and giving and receiving and football and dressing in new clothes.  Yes, Christmas has come.  It has certainly made its indelible mark on us yet again….  You know Christ has come – the prophecies said that he would and God’s plan said it was time.  Christ has come – he was born to live so that he could die and redeem all of humanity.  Christ has come – his gift was simple, yet it was the greatest and most powerful gift that could ever, that would ever be given to this world.  Christ has come – and as a result, all of the human race has the opportunity for eternal life.  Christ has come – has he made his indelible mark on you?
Even though the Bible technically doesn’t tell us to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we enjoy doing it because of the world-changing chain of events his birth brought.  The thing that doesn’t often occur to us is the amazing impact his birth would have on those adults who were on the scene at the time of his birth.  You know – or you may not know – people like Elizabeth and Zacharias who were the parents of John the Baptist.  Remember, John would play a pivotal role in history as he introduced Jesus to the world thirty years after his birth.  We don’t often stop to consider the personal stories  of John’s parents because, well, because we just want to get to the part about there being no room in the inn, the stable, the manger, the star and the baby Jesus.
There were others who played significant roles in setting up the birth of Jesus.  Think about Joseph and Mary and the incredible faith they both would have had to have as Mary became pregnant by miraculous means – and before they were married no less.  Think about the shepherds. These guys were kinda low on the grid of society and yet they were given an angelic announcement of Jesus’ birth and what it would mean.  All of these individuals were given very special gifts as part of their personal experiences and the roles they fulfilled that surrounded Jesus’ birth.
Gifts.  It turns out the gifts these chosen people were given make for a pretty inspirational story about the birth of Jesus, and it’s a story that you probably haven’t heard before.  What makes it even better is their gifts are also available to us and we can pass them on as well.  Check out our December 26, 2016 podcast, “Are You Dreaming of the Right Christmas?” and see what these gifts are for yourself.  And by the way – Merry Christmas!

What a pain in the neck – or my back or my arm or my leg. None of us like physical pain and when we have it we usually try and do all kinds of things to get rid of it.  One really great way to do this is to go to a physical therapist and let them understand the problem and its source, evaluate and act on that understanding and then help us work through the process to regain our strength and health.  What they help us do will probably bring us more pain for a short time so that we can have less or no pain for a long time!  If you ask me, that is a winning formula!  Can the process and treatment we receive from a physical therapist translate into steps we can take to identify, treat and alleviate the pains and malfunctioning of our spiritual lives? The best way to find that answer is to ask a physical therapist, so we did!
We invited Leah, a Licensed Physical Therapist, to be on with us to talk about some details of the process a Physical Therapist typically uses.  What we found was fascinating, asthe steps she laid us for us easily translated into identifiable spiritual steps for managing our spiritual lives.  First of all we want to establish that all spiritual growth doesn’t have to come from emotional pain or injury and doesn’t always come from life’s traumas and tragedies either.  Sometimes we can just grow – and that would be ideal.  Sometimes we face imperfections or defects in our characters that need treatment, and while that does not feel like it is ideal, it is certainly fertile ground for growth.
The first physical therapy step Leah laid out is the recognition of pain, the realization that something is not right.  For our physical bodies, it is the sore knee or elbow or back; it is feeling the pain and acknowledging it hurts.  This almost sounds like a "duh!" moment, but it really isn’t.  Think about how often we ignore an ache or pain, and it festers and grows into something bigger and far more difficult to endure and inevitably far more difficult to treat.  It is the same with our spiritual lives. We often just go along and ignore our angry thoughts or our jealous reactions or our egotistical positioning.  We ignore these things again and again, and they fester and then slowly and sometimes imperceptibly, we become more unlikable to others and less Christ-like overall.  To acknowledge the spiritual pain or malfunction is an all important place to start!
This brings us to the all important second step - to seek help.  There is a clearly defined path, for this step that can bring you to a Physical Therapist but it is a bit more of a challenge when it comes to spiritual matters.  Find out why and find out how this step - along with all eight steps - can really have an impact on not just dealing with our spiritual pains but actually helping to remedy them as well.  Check out our December 19, 2016 podcast, “Can Physical Therapy Teach Us Spiritual Wellbeing?”  It won’t hurt, I promise!