All Episodes — Word of Life Church Podcast

In the Days of the Righteous King

I know I’m speaking idealistically, but I’m a dreamer (and I’m not the only one), so let me just say it. There’s no place on earth like the church. A place where Matthew 25 is just a normal day — a place where the poor are fed and clothed, the sick are helped and healed (who do you think invented hospitals?), a place where the immigrant is welcomed, and the prisoner is given dignity. A place where everyone is saint and sinner. A place where a judge and a felon can sit side by side on the same pew with equal status in Christ. A place where we not only carry each other’s burdens, but when necessary carry each other, because, despite our vast differences in education and opportunity, opinions and politics, we are learning to love one another like Jesus loves us — unconditionally. Yes, I know I’m speaking like a dreamer, but I’m dreaming with my eyes wide open, because I’ve seen everything I’ve just described right here at Word of Life Church. Amen.

Nov 25, 2018

Exile On Main Street

The Babylonian exile was a time of theological deconstruction for Israel. The literal destruction of Jerusalem and the temple gave the Hebrew prophets space to rethink things. And they did. They dreamed of a new Israel, a new Jerusalem, a new temple, and a new covenant.

Nov 18, 2018

How Lonely Sits the City

If we’re schooled in denial we don’t know what to do with suffering when it comes. But the Hebrew people—formed in the crucible of suffering—know what to do. You write a poem, sing a song, create a lament that gives full expression to the pain you feel. You make art out of your pain so that you can give it away to God.

Nov 11, 2018

A Prophet for the End Times

Jeremiah was a prophet for the end times; and we need such prophets because things are always coming to an end. It’s hubris and idolatry to think that anything other than God and his kingdom lasts forever. Nations and empires, institutions and economies, moments, movements, and even our lives all come to an end. But prophets like Jeremiah help us accept these inevitable endings and see the purposes of God in them.

Nov 4, 2018

My Soul Follows Hard After Thee

This road we are on following Jesus isn’t pretty or neat and tidy. It’s hard to follow Jesus. Whoever told you otherwise is selling Jesus short. Following Jesus is thrilling and rewarding, but it isn't easy. We have to accept hardship as the pathway to the peace that Jesus talks about. The psalms have been given to us as very real, very honest language to be used to reach out to God through the hardships of the Christian life including the hardships of patience, perseverance, forgiveness, and love.

Oct 28, 2018

Mercy As Sure As The Morning

This beautiful pilgrim psalm is a meditation on the mercy of God. The psalmist sings about how God does not mark iniquities, about God’s plenteous forgiveness, about God’s steadfast love, about God’s great power to redeem. It’s also a song about waiting with hope. The soul of the pilgrim waits for the mercy of <a href="http://God...more" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">God...more</a> than the watchman for the morning. Yes, we wait for the mercy of God—mercy as sure as the morning.

Oct 21, 2018

You're Being Followed

"Sometimes when I stand in some corner of Auschwitz, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. And I want to be there right in the thick of what people call “horror” and still be able to say: life is beautiful. And now I lie here in a corner, dizzy and feverish and unable to do a thing. But I am also with the jasmine and with that piece of sky beyond my window. For once you have begun to walk with God, you need only keep on walking with Him and all of life becomes one long stroll—such a marvelous feeling." -Etty Hillesum (1914-1943)

Oct 14, 2018

The Pilgrim's Way

Pilgrimage (a journey of a spiritual nature) has always been a practice among spiritual seekers. The ancient Jews were to make three pilgrimages a year to the holy city of Jerusalem. This is the context for Psalm 84 — it’s a meditation on the pilgrim journey to Zion. As such it's a profound reflection upon the all-important journey of the heart — an inner pilgrimage toward a mature revelation of God.

Oct 7, 2018

No Man is an Island

On the journey of life, we will find ourselves as both the helper and the helped. The myth of the self-made man is a strong belief in our culture, but an honest reflection on life will find "no man is an island entire of itself." We are a God-made mankind and it is not good that we are alone. Therefore, may find comfort in a God who is good and faithful - who's help most often comes through other people.

Sep 30, 2018

Four Practices for Resurrection People

We are resurrection people not only because believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. We are resurrection people because we practice resurrection. We walk in newness of life. There are four practices that open up the door to all the other practices of the faith, namely awareness, learning, reflecting, and action. When we adopt these four practices, the way of life opens up for us.

Sep 23, 2018

A Mystic Or Nothing At All

“The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic,’ one who has ‘experienced’ something, or he will cease to be anything at all. –Karl Rahner The tsunami of secularism will be survived, not by clever apologetics, or by waging misguided culture wars, or by pining away for an irretrievable past, but being a person who has had their own mystical experience with God.

Sep 16, 2018

My Back Pages

My Back Pages Bob Dylan Crimson flames tied through my ears Rollin’ high and mighty traps Pounced with fire on flaming roads Using ideas as my maps “We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I Proud ’neath heated brow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth “Rip down all hate,” I screamed Lies that life is black and white Spoke from my skull. I dreamed Romantic facts of musketeers Foundationed deep, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now Girls’ faces formed the forward path From phony jealousy To memorizing politics Of ancient history Flung down by corpse evangelists Unthought of, though, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now A self-ordained professor’s tongue Too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty Is just equality in school “Equality,” I spoke the word As if a wedding vow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand At the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not I’d become my enemy In the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats Mutiny from stern to bow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats Too noble to neglect Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect Good and bad, I define these terms Quite clear, no doubt, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now

Sep 9, 2018

There Is A Light

There Is A Light U2 And if the terrors of the night come creeping into your days And the world comes, stealing children from your room Guard your innocence From hallucination and know that darkness always gathers around the light There is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always be If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light, don’t let it go out When the winds screams and shouts And the sea is a dragon’s tail And the ship that stole your heart away sets sail When all you’ve left is leaving And all you got is grieving And all you know is needing If there is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always be If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light, don’t let it go out Cause this is a song A song for someone Someone like me I know the world is done But you don’t have to be I’ve got a question for the child in you before it leaves Are you tough enough to be kind? Do you know your heart has it’s own mind? Darkness gathers around the light Hold on, hold on There is a light you can’t always see If there is a world we can’t always be If there is a dark that we shouldn’t doubt And there is a light don’t let it go out And this is a song A song for someone This is a song A song for someone Someone like me Someone like me Someone like me

Sep 2, 2018

This Wild Darkness

Lament A portion like madness in season Bracing all like a breaking of reason With every night lost and every day torn With the drama feeling calmer and it's calmer in the storm Speakers are crying like a forest in the rain I was so alone with my thoughts and my pain And the darkness closed like a mouth on a wild night I'll never be free Gospel Ooh, in this darkness Please light my way Light my way Lament I can't stand on my own anymore I can't stand in the stain of the broken and poor I can't break what I held and it never was true In the mirror what I said was a lie to you And me and everything I see and everything I could I tried so hard to be good For myself, for you, for the hidden and divine For everything but I can fail just so many times Gospel Ooh, in this darkness Please light my way Light my way

Aug 26, 2018

Saving Grace

I'm passing sleeping cities Fading by degrees Not believing all I see to be so I'm flyin' over backyards Country homes and ranches Watching life between the branches below And it's hard to say Who you are these days But you run on anyway Don't you baby? You keep running for another place To find that saving grace I'm moving on alone Over ground that no one owns Past statues that atone for my sins There's a guard on every door And a drink on every floor Overflowing with a thousand amens And it's hard to say Who you are these days But you run on anyway Don't you baby? You keep running for another place To find that saving grace Don't you baby? You're rolling up the carpet Of your father's two-room mansion No headroom for expansion no more And there's a corner of the floor They're telling you is yours You're confident but not really sure And it's hard to say Who you are these days But you run on anyway Don't you baby? You keep running for another place To find that saving grace Don't you baby?

Aug 19, 2018

Oh Joy Begin

The day you came Naked, afraid Young mother screams and pushes you The day you came Oh joy begin Weak little thing More precious there’ll be nothing, no Oh joy begin Let’s not forget these early days Remember we begin the same We lose our way in fear and pain Oh joy begin First just one step One word and then With laughter sing, oh life begin First just one step Innocent kiss Black magic bliss First broken bone Sudden and swift Oh innocence Let’s not forget these early days Remember we begin the same We lose our way in fear and hate Oh joy begin Oh joy begin

Aug 12, 2018

Love Never

Love Never Jimmy Eat World Love ain’t never been your friend Love never going hear what you’re demanding Love ain’t some magical thing Love never gonna to be the way you’re dreaming It’s going to seem so far It’s going to feel so hard Until you want the work more than the reward Until you stop asking, “Oh, what is it all for?” Do you want the work more than the reward?

Aug 5, 2018

ROME!

The story line of the Book of Acts is very straightforward: It retraces the Gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria to the Gentiles and finally to Rome. The dominant person in the first twelve chapters is the Apostle Peter: His preaching in Jerusalem, his proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles at Caesarea, and the Council in Jerusalem that determined that Gentiles do not have to become Jewish in order to belong to the body of Messiah. The central figure in the remaining sixteen chapters of Acts is the Apostle Paul: His conversion on the Damascus Road, his preaching of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire, the persecution he suffered from both Jews and Gentiles, and finally his arrival in the capital city of Rome about thirty years after the resurrection of Jesus. Rome is where the Jesus revolution had to go.

Jul 22, 2018

Why The First Christians Were Persecuted

Why were the first Christians frequently persecuted? Not because they embraced a new religion, but because with their faith, their baptism and their Christian lifestyle they announced and enacted a new social order. The first Christians pledged their allegiance to Christ as the world's new and true King and they dared to live according to that allegiance.

Jul 15, 2018

Missional Imagination

Jul 8, 2018