I am more than the sum total of the religious podcasts I listen to. There are other podcasts too. *chuckles* That makes the sum total.
They’re good, and I think you’ll like them.
September 2019. Sam was there but we didn’t know it yet.
I used to be a runner, and I enjoyed it a lot. I still lift weights. These podcasts were in my rotation.
Diz Runs—host Denny Krahe gives running advice with a bit of sarcasm and wit.
Running for Real—Tina Muir hosts, and it’s a bit more holistic.
Run to the Top—different coaches giving different running advice. It’s like magazine articles being read to you with occasional interviews.
The Dan John Podcast—the dude is a renaissance man of fitness, and people send him questions that he answers on health and fitness. I reviewed his book from Dad to Grad. Of the four podcasts I had to pick from, I chose this as the most recommended.
I like history, especially in story format with some behind-the-scenes stuff.
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History—the history behind the history. Dan takes a topic (currently Japan in WWII) and talks about it for literally a day. Seriously, each podcast is over three hours and part of a series. Good for road trips.
5 Minutes in Church History—the opposite of the previous podcast in length. It was recommended by a friend and is only five minutes. Earlier this year, they covered Augustine. Its tagline is: This is our family history.
Jocko Unraveling—this podcast is like a shorter version of Hardcore History. Jocko actually likes that podcast. Jocko’s podcast, co-hosted with Darryl Cooper, covers the recent history and past history. Like Sadaam Hussein and the Iraq War and the links to the Cold War. Their goal is to show how situations unraveled to pop off these historical events. Like the often-repeated yet never-heeded phrase, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
I’m a big fan of self-improvement podcasts.
Jocko Podcast—Jocko, retired Navy SEAL who I mentioned above and often review, and Echo Charles discuss discipline and leadership in business, war, relationships, and everyday life. Interviews and going through different books. They run long. I listen to select ones of this one.
The Art of Manliness—Brett McKay interviews different people on topics to help make you a better, more well-rounded man. It hits twice a week, and I usually listen to all of them.
The Tim Ferriss Show—Tim talks to successful people and tries to reverse engineer what makes them successful. The topics and people are varied but hit and miss for me. He’s covering a lot about psychedelics now.
These are some of the podcasts I like to listen to. I’m constantly stuffing my head with as much information as I can. So if you see one you like, give it a shot.
Seriously, since the book reviews are doing well, I figured I should do a list type of post with my favorite podcasts. I love to learn, and there are laws against reading and driving. Podcasts fill that time.
I’ll do the Christian podcasts this week and everything else next week.
Of course, if these are playing while I’m driving, just imagine the education Sam will have by the time he hits preschool.
Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture
Hosted by Scott McRae and Sean McDowell, they tackle where faith and culture meet, obviously. They’ve tackled Christian Nationalism, the Covid vaccine, the Equality Act, Transgender issues, and Progressive Christianity.
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.
Hosted by apologist Dr. Frank Turek, it’s a good podcast, though sometimes I get tired of the rhetoric. Recent episodes are “Your God is Too Small, Jesus is a Racist?” and “Return of the God Hypothesis with Dr. Stephen Myer.”
The Naked Bible Podcast
You’ve seen my book reviews on demons and how the Bible isn’t boring. That author, Dr. Michael S. Heiser, has a podcast where he is currently going through how the Old Testament and Revelation connect. You have to be a hardcore nerd to enjoy this. He gets further into the weeds than Pastor Randy.
The Insurgence Podcast
The author, Frank Viola, of the book I reviewed called the Insurgence has a podcast directly tied to the book. Start at the beginning and work your way up; they build on each other.
The Church Leaders Podcast
Geared towards professional clergy and volunteer leaders, this podcast has recently begun doing series with a singular focus on current issues facing leaders. They started with Christian Nationalism, with interviews with Samuel Perry, Glenn Packiam, Franklin Graham, and Tim Keller.
Currently, the focus is on LGBTQ issues. First, with Juli Slattery on how the church can begin the LGBTQ conversation. Gregory Coles spoke about how it’s possible to be same-sex attracted and fully surrendered to Jesus. Mark Yarhouse on how to pastor someone who has gender dysphoria. Ed Shaw on how God used his same-sex attraction to equip him as a pastor. The latest is the above-mentioned Sean McDowell on how Scripture is very clear about God’s design for sexuality.
A lot of different voices on important issues today.
Stand To Reason and #STRask
The first is hosted by Greg Koukl, and he has a monologue or a guest and then takes callers with questions. I reviewed his book Tactics. It’s a good podcast that’s an hour-long and twice a week.
#STRask is also twice a week, but it’s pure Q&A. You send him and Amy Hall questions on Twitter with that hashtag, and they answer them. It runs for about 20-30 minutes.
The Cold-Case Christianity Podcast
I reviewed this host’s book by the same name. J. Warner Wallace looks at Christianity and culture with the eye of a detective.
Defenders Podcast
This is a philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig’s Sunday School class. It’s a seminary-level education. I love it, even though I don’t always understand it.
All the apologetic and theological podcasts! Any preaching?
Why yes.
Tony Evans’ Sermons
Love Worth Finding with Adrian Rogers (get back to my Baptist roots with these.)
Timothy Keller Sermons (Gospel in Life) (He feeds my mind and soul.)
First Assembly NLR Audio Podcasts (from my church FirstNLR with Pastor Rod Loy.)
Next post, I’ll do the rest, a blend of podcasts from fitness, leadership, and history.
I’ve been thinking about maturity as of late. What is the most evident sign of it?
I think it’s the ability to be teachable. Where you can accept corrections and learn. That’s definitely a sign of humility.
I recently got a book titled Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully In A World of Difference. It’s a collection of essays from different Christians from different walks of life. A few reviewers ripped it apart as anti-white.
As I read, I did see some criticism, along with different perspectives from mine. It was things I’ve been tangentially aware of or didn’t know about at all. I was learning.
While some issues are black and white, society is morally gray because it’s run by morally gray people.
Who are these people?
Everyone. None are good (Romans 3:22-24), and most aren’t all bad. Even cannibals who eat their neighbor rather than love them still love their kids—shades of gray.
I read this quote from Dan John’s Wandering Weight’s newsletter and copied it.
“Unconditional positive regard means offering compassion to people even if they have done something wrong. A therapist practicing unconditional positive regard would respond with compassion to a person in treatment who may have gambled away their savings, lied at work, or mistreated a friend. It is striving to respond with understanding rather than contempt for the individual.
However, unconditional positive regard does not mean unconditional acceptance. We should be careful to not enable others to continue to act in harmful ways out of our desire not to hurt their feelings. Rather, having positive regard means treating people as fallible human beings regardless of what they do, even if we don’t like what they’ve done.
Whereas judgment and shame elicit defensiveness, acceptance fosters safety, which invites honesty and self-exploration. It’s offering the sort of grace we wish others would offer us when we fail.” Source is here.
No matter what side of the divide you sit on, you’re not in a position of superiority. A conversation over a meal is better than a lecture or SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
With a morally gray society, the potential for abuse is ripe. Even the angels who actually saw God fell.
Don’t be surprised when fallen humans fail. But if they’re teachable, you can work with them.
Six years ago, I read a book about tying the Bible to today’s culture. In it, I have 142 highlights and 4 notes. If you want to make sense of the intersection of faith and culture, try reading…
Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture
“”Think Christianly, in a compelling and accessible way, equips Christians young and old to engage the culture winsomely, intelligently, and confidently.” – Chuck Colson Jonathan Morrow believes that only when Christians learn to present a compassionate, engaging, and informed voice to our culture can the church again become a place the world turns to for answers. Think Christianly gives church leaders practical tools for helping their congregations thoughtfully engage today’s cultural questions.””
The book’s chapters are interviews with different people about cultural topics. It’s broken into three sections: Understanding Our Intersection, Preparing To Engage, and Areas We Must Engage.
This is the first place I learned about the religion of many Americans—Moral Therapeutic Deism. What’s that?
“The dominant religion of today’s American teenager is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD), a concept developed by Smith and Denton. Not Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, or Buddhism. Regardless of their professed religion, here is what God looks like to the majority of American teenagers (and again, this sample includes those in conservative Protestant and evangelical churches):
• A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
• God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
• Good people go to heaven when they die.
God is sort of a nebulous combination of divine butler and cosmic therapist. Smith summarized the approach to life that flows out of this belief system as “be nice and call on God if you need him.”
It should go without saying that it is impossible to navigate the pressures and challenges of adolescent or adult life with such a feeble worldview. More importantly, this is hardly the vision for life that Jesus offers his would-be followers.”
That’s convicting. Am I looking at God like that?
“The simple fact is that core Christian beliefs, that is, a biblical worldview, are not guiding the vast majority of adult Christians. The numbers have not changed over the past thirteen years (for example, four national surveys in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2009). Only 9 percent of all American adults have a biblical worldview. And to be honest, these next six statements, which define a “biblical worldview,” are a thin substitute for the robustness of historic Christianity.
1. Absolute moral truth exists.
2. The Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
3. Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
4. A person cannot earn his or her way into heaven by trying to be good or do good works.
5. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
6. God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world, and God still rules the universe today.
When narrowing the focus, the news doesn’t get much better. Only 19 percent of professing “born again” Christians hold to a biblical worldview (a respondent would have had to agree that “they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life” and that “they believe they will go to heaven when they die because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.”
“We must move beyond Sunday morning Christianity and learn how to speak in a compassionate, winsome, and informed voice to our culture, starting with the questions they are asking. As Everyday Ambassadors, we build bridges between cultural moments and the gospel of the kingdom.”
“”Culture is the environment and atmosphere in which we live and breathe with others.” That’s good. Philosopher Garry DeWeese helpfully unpacks this concept a bit more by defining culture as a “shared system of stories and symbols, beliefs and values, traditions and practices, and the media of communication that unite a people synchronically (at a given time) and diachronically (through history).” The most transferable way I have found to summarize what culture it comes from Andy Crouch: “Culture is what people make of the world.”
The following quote is timely even more today than when it was written a decade ago.
“Here are two suggestions. First, we need to stop being against everything — especially the media. While our viewpoints may not be fairly represented all the time, grumbling and complaining about it on camera will not change anything. Most Americans can tell you what Christians are against — usually homosexuals — but few could tell you what Christians are actually for, namely, truth, redemption, justice, and human flourishing. Second, as Christians we need to understand those we disagree with (and why), be fair in representing their positions (especially from the pulpit), and do our homework on the issues of our day (part 3 of this book will help). People may still disagree, but they will notice that our carefully considered convictions are based on clear thinking — which will help them see that Christianity is a thoughtful faith. Finally, our distinctions of culture, pop culture, and the world help us shape the appropriate response, given the particular cultural moment we find ourselves in. What we are against is the influence of the world system on culture. We need to abandon the sledgehammer mentality, which often causes collateral damage and unintended consequences, and instead adopt a surgical and tactical approach.”
This is just the start. Chapters cover thinking Christianly about all of life, becoming like the Jesus the world needs, Jesusanity versus Christianity, engaging our media-saturated culture, the good news about injustice, and many more.
Writing this review makes me want to reread the book. I gave it 5 stars.
“When Dan Kimball first sat down to meet with a student who was disillusioned by Christianity, he wasn’t ready for what he was about to hear. The student had a positive church experience. He was grateful for his youth leader. But he had serious objections to Christianity. Why? He had begun studying the Bible and found he could no longer accept what it taught. Reading the Bible had led him to become an atheist.
In How Not to Read the Bible, pastor and bestselling author Dan Kimball tackles one of the most pressing apologetic challenges of the twenty-first-century church–how do we read and interpret the Bible? Kimball introduces several critical principles to utilize when you open a Bible or read a verse. Then, he looks at five of the most common challenges that arise when people read the Bible today, including: the relationship between science and the Bible, the violence we find in the Bible, the treatment of women in the Bible, the odd and strange commands we find in the Bible, and the Bible’s controversial claim that there is only one way to know God. Kimball highlights several of the most common passages people find objectionable and shows readers how to correctly interpret them.
This is an ideal book for those exploring Christianity or new to the faith, as well as Christians who are wrestling with questions about these difficult issues and the challenges of interpreting the Bible. Filled with stories and examples, as well as visual illustrations and memes reflecting popular cultural objections, How Not to Read the Bible will motivate readers who are confused or discouraged by questions they have about the Bible and guides them–step-by-step–to a clear understanding of what the Bible is saying in context. The book can also be taught as a six-week sermon series or used in small groups for study and discussion.”
A lot of Christians don’t read the Bible as they should. It comes from devotions that feature one verse and an unrelated essay. I prefer reading plans that take me through the whole Bible, along with following my curiosity.
A warning: I highlighted a lot of this book on my Kindle. And since I don’t post as frequently as before, I’m not worried about a long book review. So let’s explore how not to read the Bible.
“Here is the good news. There are ways to better understand these crazy-sounding Bible verses. We must learn how to, and how not to, read the Bible. Most of the examples we’ve seen so far are a result of people who are not reading the Bible correctly. If you are willing to look beyond the visual image and explore beyond a literal, out-of-context reading of a verse, you’ll discover the Bible is not “sheer nonsense.” There are many strange things in it, but when we study what it really says, the Bible is an amazing, life-changing book written by people who were directed by God through God’s Spirit. As we take a closer look at these and other Bible passages, my hope is that you will have your questions and concerns answered, and you will come to better know the author of the Bible.”
“Here are the four facts about how to and how not to read the Bible: 1. The Bible is a library, not a book. 2. The Bible is written for us, but not to us. 3. Never read a Bible verse. 4. All of the Bible points to Jesus.”
“Although the Bible often comes in print form as a single bound book, it is actually a collection of sixty-six books printed in one volume, a library of books. This library is diverse, containing writings of history, poetry, prophecy, and law. This library of diverse books was written in three different languages over a 1,500-year period by a whole bunch of different people from different cultures. Some books in this library were written more than a thousand years before the other books.”
We see a lot of the bizarre stuff from the Old Covenant as chronicled in the Old Testament. Here’s what Kimball has to say about that.
“The Old Covenant (or testament) is the agreement God made with the people of Israel (ethnically Jewish people) outlining in detail how they would relate to God and know him. The New Covenant (or testament) is the agreement God made with all people through Jesus, and in making this agreement, he did away with the Old Covenant (more on this later). The New Covenant outlines how all people today of every ethnic background (not just the Jewish people) can relate to God and worship him.”
He then expounds on his four facts with this:
“The second of the four facts you need to know to interpret the Bible correctly is that the Bible was written for us, but not to us. When the brilliant and highly respected Old Testament scholar John Walton spoke at my church, he repeated this phrase multiple times: “The Bible was written for us, but not to us.” He explained that the Bible is 100 percent inspired by God, and we can have confidence that every word in the original documents of the Bible is exactly what God wanted it to say. We believe in God’s full inspiration and the total trustworthiness of the Bible. The books in the library of the Bible are for all people at all times and places to read and gain wisdom from. But the Bible wasn’t originally written to us. It wasn’t written in any modern language, and it wasn’t written with our contemporary culture and its assumptions and values in mind. To get the most benefit from what God was communicating when he inspired the authors of the Bible to write, we need to enter their world to hear the words as the original audience would have heard them and as the author would have meant them to be understood. We must read the words on those terms.”
Context matters.
“Most people, when they start reading the Bible, want to immediately know “what does this mean to me and my life?” This assumes that when we read the Bible, we should read it as if what God was writing is specifically and directly written to us today. We may not even realize we do this, but we do it all the time. And sadly, even the preaching and teaching in some churches unintentionally does this, and it doesn’t help people to understand the Bible. When we read the Bible in this way, we read into it our presuppositions—what we believe and understand based on our experience, worldview, culture, and knowledge. Our contemporary values and way of life are also part of the lens through which we read the Bible. And while there is much it can say to help us, if we view the Bible as mainly a “message for me,” we will be in great trouble. We will end up picking and choosing the things we like reading and want to apply to our lives.”
We do like to claim the good verses that don’t apply to us, like Jeremiah 29:11. That’s for the exiles in Babylon. There are others about being destroyed for breaking the covenant that we don’t claim, but we will claim that one.
“But not every promise or blessing is something we can directly apply to our lives today. We might take Bible verses and promises that are not meant for us and then be disappointed in God when they don’t happen.”
“All too often, we take a nice-sounding Bible verse and apply it directly to our life. For instance, Isaiah 12:2 says, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense.” We like to claim that Bible verse and own it. We take comfort in it personally, which is a good thing to do, as God is our strength and defense. That verse is truth for all times because it reflects the unchanging character and nature of God. But we avoid claiming two verses later in the same book. Isaiah 34:2–3 says, “He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.” Can you picture that Bible promise as the theme verse for the annual women’s retreat, with a coffee mug gift for each woman who attends? Not all verses are written to us and apply to us. And we often pick and choose by taking the nice-sounding Bible verses and claiming they are true and applying them to our lives, while skipping past the negative crazy-sounding ones. We need to stop and ask: who was the Bible verse originally written to and why? As we will discover, many of the Bible verses that don’t make sense to us today usually made sense to the original readers.”
Here is a big key to understanding the Bible.
“If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I’ve ever learned as a Christian? Here it is: Never read a Bible verse. That’s right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least.”
He’s quoting Greg Koukl there.
“Every Bible verse fits within a larger story, and whenever we read any verse, we want to:
• Look at the specific Bible verse (many people stop here).
• Look at the paragraph the verse is in.
• Look at the chapter the Bible verse is in.
• Look at the book of the Bible that the chapter and verse are in.
• Look at where the book of the Bible the verse is in fits in the Bible’s whole storyline.”
He then lays out the storyline of the Bible. Two final quotes about what a donkey in the bathtub has to do with weird laws in the Bible.
“Have you ever looked into some of the strange and unusual state laws in the United States? Several of these are still in the law books today and have never been repealed. In Arizona: It is illegal for a donkey to sleep in a bathtub. In Kentucky: It is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket. In Connecticut: It is illegal for any beautician or barber to whistle, hum, or sing while working on a customer. Reading these nonsensical laws makes you wonder why they were ever passed in the first place. Who needs a law about carrying ice cream in your back pocket? Bizarre laws about donkeys sleeping in bathtubs seem pretty ridiculous to us. But when you look into the history behind them, there is always a backstory, and that backstory provides us with meaning. Knowing why they were originally put in place and when is the key to understanding.”
“For example, the law about not allowing a donkey to sleep in a bathtub was put into effect in 1924. The story is that a rancher had a donkey that frequently slept in an abandoned bathtub on the rancher’s property. One day, a local dam broke, and the water from the reservoir washed the bathtub and the donkey into a basin. Local authorities were called to help rescue the donkey, but it was not easy to do. It required a lot of effort and manpower to finally rescue the animal. To prevent such a thing from ever happening again, they passed a law that prohibited donkeys from sleeping in bathtubs. At that time, for those involved, it made sense to have that law. It was likely never prosecuted, but it was put in place for a reason at a certain time for a certain purpose, a purpose most of us cannot relate to today, since few of us own a donkey.”
Ponder on that. That’s only 25% of the way through it, and we’re at over 2,000 words. So I’ll finish with the chapter headings to give you an idea of what follows what I’ve quoted.
Chapter 6: Making Sense of Shrimp, the Skin of a Dead Pig, and Slavery
Chapter 7: The Boy’s Club Bible
Chapter 8: Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down
Chapter 9: Making Sense of Inequality in the Bible
Chapter 10: Jesus Riding A Dinosaur
Chapter 11: In The Beginning We Misunderstood
Chapter 12: Making Sense of the Bible versus Science Conflict
Chapter 13: My God Can Beat Up Your God
Chapter 14: Love Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
Chapter 15: Making Sense of the Intolerant Sounding Jesus
Chapter 16: The TV-MA, NC-17 Bible
Chapter 17: The God of Compassion, Slow to Anger and Forgiving
Chapter 18: Making Sense of the Texts of Terror
Postlude: Jesus Loved His Crazy Bible (Why Trusting It Isn’t That Crazy)
As big a theology nerd as I am, I still learned something new from the book that’s affected my study. At the end of the book, he has a message for Christians struggling with the Bible and another for unbelievers. If that’s you, read it.
