Truth Be Told

How To Make Bible Study Interesting Again Part 2

Last week's episode outlined 4 practical steps to cultivate a natural curiosity of Scripture:

1. Generally know the stories, truths, and virtues of Scripture

2. Train yourself to find Biblical patterns

3. Find those patterns that reflect universal truths, themes, and types EVERYWHERE (including outside of the Bible)

4. Reverse the order (find the themes, truths, and types you love and connect with from other stories/examples and find them IN scripture).

 

This week, I wanted to go through these steps using one of my favorite examples: Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings. Hopefully, after walking through this example, the steps will become clearer to envision and you'll begin to see how you can borrow the emotion evoked by more modern stories/media/examples and apply them to Scripture because those examples are only borrowing from Scripture in the first place. 

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

How To Make Bible Study Interesting Again Part 1

So many Christians struggle to maintain proper motivation for prayer and bible study. Sometimes, the thought of studying the Bible can even feel downright boring and this can lead to a tremendous amount of debilitating guilt. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if we were more genuinely curious about the Scriptures so that it didn't feel like a chore to look into them more frequently? Wouldn't it be great if we could confidently dive deep into the word of God without the fear of feeling guilty over how much we just don't know? What if feeling actually interested in the text didn't feel so forced?

In this episode, we walk through 4 practical tips for cultivating a natural curiosity of Scripture that should help to remove those roadblocks that hinder you from desiring deeper study.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Do We Misunderstand Christ's Role As Our Mediator?

When we consider what a mediator does in a modern context, we might immediately have some modern conflicts come to mind. It's only natural for these modern conflicts to shape our view of the role itself.

When we consider Jesus as our Mediator before the Father, do we allow some of the horrible conflicts that modern Mediators deal in to shape our understanding of what He is doing for us? If so, we might be in danger of, not only, misunderstanding the role of Jesus Christ, but also misunderstanding the disposition of the Father towards us.

Jesus as Mediator acts as a conduit for us to run back to the Father, not as a shield against the hatred we believe the Father might have for us. It's true, our sin needed dealt with and there is a lot of anger/enemy language in those contexts that can't be ignored, but they shouldn't cause us to think that the Father is vengeful and hateful towards us when He is the One who SENT the Mediator as a way to repair the relationship between us that we broke in the first place.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Lessons In Transformation From the Staff of Moses

In Exodus 4, the staff of Moses is, in one way, transformed into something wholly unique and different from what it had ever been before. This change doesn't come with grandiose celebration or any sort of fanfare. In fact, most readers would probably gloss right over the change that takes place without paying it much attention.

However, when the staff of Moses becomes the staff of God, amazing symbolism takes place that correlates to Moses' own life which, in turn, should give us many things to think about in our own lives as well.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Doubt: Faithfully Navigating Uncertainty - Discussion With Clint Porter

I thoroughly enjoyed talking with my good friend Clint Porter about doubt (and faith and certainty and trust and knowledge and church cultures and the Dunning-Kruger effect and and and and and..).

Every Christian has moments of doubting and we can start to feel guilty for that, but it's highly likely that we're thinking of those moments all wrong.

In this episode we'll shed light on questions like - What do we mean when we say the word: doubt? What is faith? Can doubt ever be a good thing? How should we think about various biblical examples who expressed their own doubts?

We'll also dive into topics like - how to combat certainty thinking, what to do when church cultures that make doubting feel morally wrong, and using the Dunning-Kruger effect (learning curve) as a template for checking where we are and where we need to go as we weight the claims of the Bible.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

What The What's A Wave Sheaf?

Compared to Old Testament and First Century Israel, celebration of God's Holy Days have diminished significantly. Even those who keep the Holy Days often have a hard time genuinely celebrating them. With this decrease in outward festivity and joy has come a complete dissolving of some of the lesser biblical observances and traditions that occurred during the Holy Days themselves in antiquity.

One of these observances that probably wasn't taken too much notice of even in biblical times that has almost become devoid of meaning to the average biblical Christian is the Wave Sheaf Offering that took place between the Days of Unleavened Bread outlined in Leviticus 23. 

If we carry the symbolism of this Wave Sheaf Offering through to the New Testament (as is common with all the rest of the Holy Day observances) to see what its purpose might have been as time went on, we just might be awestruck at how immensely important this small ritual actually is. 

The Wave Sheaf offering was an armload of barley grain that was taken into the tabernacle/temple and waved "before the LORD," as a firstfruit offering of the new harvest. In this episode we explore how this ties to the ascension of Jesus Christ to the Father and why this was even an important thing.

While most people know that Jesus did ascend to the Father, few know what the need for this was and how greatly this symbolism should enhance our celebration of what God has done on our behalf.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Bridging the Gap: Overcoming Generational "Divides" in the Church

The things that run rampant in the culture of the world inevitably filter into the Church though, hopefully, to a lesser degree. One of these unfortunate things is the seeming desire to make division out of differences. Even in local church congregations where people, generally, have a lot in common, we find ways to divide ourselves contrary to Christ's prayer for us at the end of His physical life. 

One of the biggest differences turned division in the Christian church is that of age. Younger people who have grown up seeing the mistakes of older people lose respect for them over time and the older people, sensing this, lose trust in the younger. 

In this message (specifically given to my home congregation in Columbus, Ohio where this problem is honestly not one we struggle with, though applicable to everyone whether they struggle with it or not) we go over one story that takes place at the end of King David's life that outlines appropriate attitudes from both younger and older generations towards each other.

Hopefully we can take this as an example on how to overcome the generational divide by refusing to make it a thing worth being divided over.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Science vs. God: Finally Ending This Stupid Debate

The argument between science and God is finally put to rest here!

The idea that we need to take an either or approach to these two topics is a false dichotomy often leveled at Christians, so that antagonistic skeptics, atheists, and extreme naturalists can pretend like God isn't real just because He isn't hemmed in by their isolated field of study. A biblical approach to things allows for God, science, philosophy, history, morality, etc. to be unified under the banner of reality.

Christians - refuse to be made to feel as if taking the biblical approach is the more narrow view because it simply isn't.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

The Cautionary Tale of Moses

*NOTE: throughout this episode I refer to Moses as a "murderer." I'd like it to be clear that I, personally, view Moses' action of killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave as a justified act not worthy of the title of murder. Modern Torah readers, and even first century Christians (see Stephen's statement on this event) seem to view Moses' actions as appropriate, heroic social justice, and I agree that this is an appropriate interpretation. This being said, my use of the term "murderer" is meant to reflect the attitudes that, clearly, both the Egyptians and Hebrews in his time reflected back to him which created extremely unpleasant circumstances for him. Guilt and perceived guilt are not the same but they can both cause issues.*

While most wouldn't think of Moses as a cautionary figure, the events of his life and his life itself is summed up in one event that characterizes all of it, and it is certainly a cautionary story. Though Moses accomplished much in his life, ultimately, it ended in a failure to lead the children of Israel into the promised land on account of the sin he committed the second time God brought water from the rock.

In this episode we walk through the life of Moses to analyze his preexisting conditions that became a part of who he was, and the condition of that particular sin itself realizing that the entirety of Moses' life acted as a primer for that specific sin. Though this read through, initially, seems as if Moses was predisposed to fail in nearly everything he was asked to do, and his story cries out for justice and mercy and hope - it is also this very hole in the story that is perfectly filled by Jesus Christ.

In the cautionary tale of Moses we should gain an appropriate fear of committing the sins that often plague us, but with the hope that it points to in the person of Jesus Christ, we should also be filled with relief and gratitude for what he did that neither Moses, or we, could accomplish on our own.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

 

6 Tips To Help You Share Your Faith Without Fear

Discussing our faith opens us up for criticism, critique, and antagonism from some and might alienate us from others. Talking about our beliefs is fine in some circles but uncomfortable in most others. This can put a Christian who believes they're supposed to be unashamed about their relationship with God at odds with themselves and create a lot of unease. Don't worry - you're not the only one!

 

How do we balance the understanding that Christians should be ready, willing, and able to share their faith with the paralyzing fear that inevitably crops up when we're actually faced with the opportunity (or predicament) to do so.

 

In this episode we cover 3 tips for sharing our faith effectively and 3 tips for mitigating the fear that surrounds it. You might not always be met with encouragement and support when you decide to be open about what you believe, but it does NOT need to be as fearful as thing as we often imagine it is.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg