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Learning about God’s grace from Scripture & Passing that grace on to others.
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When I was a grad student at USC years ago, I came across a man lying on his back. He appeared to have been killed with a shotgun blast to his chest. We look at the mistake this man made in his life, how he did not learn the lesson of Augustine and of Solomon, and that is to make sure that what we create in life is only good. This leads us to under…
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We look at the heavy duty use of numerical symbolism in the Old and New Testaments. We examine specific numbers and what they meant. Then we address the bigger question: why the preoccupation with numbers? What about our preoccupation with things like mathematics, art, and literature? What about our preoccupation with video games and social media? …
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When I was a young guy working in San Francisco as a computer programmer at an insurance company, I decided to do something a bit unethical to help my mother's claims get paid. I made a one character programmer error, though, that would later make me realize that God had been speaking to me. We look at 1st Peter and Romans, and we talk about what i…
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When I was in college, I had a friend with a schizophrenic mother. She thought that God had commissioned her to write a sort of new New Testament, or what we cruelly called the "New and Improved Testament". We look at the story of Adam and Eve - and why it is both a clear allegory and a sort of very literal story. We look at why my friend's mother …
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Some years ago, a sixteen year-old from Kansas accidentally slid on the ice and slightly damaged my parked car in Boulder. I had a terrible interaction with his father who angrily blamed his son for being careless. Then some weeks later I got a call from this farmer father... We look at a few Bible passages that tell us about just how a believer sh…
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I had a friend when I was a kid. His name was Miguel and he was adopted off the streets of Tijuana. No one knew when he was born. The same is true of Jesus, in truth. We look at the evidence that suggests that Jesus was born on some other day than Dec. 25 - and we look at why we don't care about this...…
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When I was getting my Ph.D. in Computer Science, I had to take an oral exam where I was told to prove a mathematical theorem. It was not the most natural task for me. We look at the story of David and Goliath - and how a determined, faithful man was able to do something that must have surprised many of those around him. We consider how putting full…
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We begin by looking at the somewhat scary birth of my wife Wendy's and mine first child. Then, this advent, we look at the birth of Jesus. In this podcast message, we consider Mary's song, from the Gospel of Luke, which praises God for the birth of Jesus and prophesies the important role that Jesus will play in humanity.…
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We look at the story of Ruth and how a young woman gives up any chance of a better life by moving back with her Jewish mother-in-law to Israel, a land that will hold her, Ruth, as a pagan and as inferior. God rewards Ruth, however, for her love and courage. We also look at my father's love of dogs, and a story about an apricot poodle that was left …
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We look at Nazareth, both modern and ancient. We consider why it was almost certainly a holy place. We consider Jesus growing up in this tiny, backwater town - and how it must have influenced him. We consider the prophesy of the Messiah from Nazareth, the savior who would help us listen to that "still, small voice" of God, as described to us in Heb…
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When I was a boy, I picked citrus with Mexican migrant workers. The men always looked after the boys. I tell a few stories of their unearned protection, their unearned grace. We look at the transition from the Old to the New Covenants, the suzerain contracts that God has made with his people. We look at the movement from having a sense of debt to G…
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We look at the city and history of Jerusalem, from its ancient beginnings, several millennia ago, to the time of Christ, to now. We consider the people who pilgrimaged there from all over the Roman Empire, so that they could visit God's city, and visit the home of God, the Temple. We consider what this means to us today and to the nature and to fut…
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I was quite the kid gardener as a boy. Once, I planted pumpkin seeds - a lot of them - in my parents' front yard. It did not turn out well. We look at the story of the withered fig tree, the money changers at the Temple, and the power of prayer. We see what it has in common with the pumpkin seeds. We see that Mark and Matthew tell different version…
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I was once at the hospital, with an elderly man who was holding the hand of his dying wife. He had been the founder of an electronics firm that made advanced computer components. He said that computers were the most dangerous invention ever. He expressed, in a more aggressive fashion, that our modern addiction to digital information, in the form of…
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When I was a boy, someone stole a shotgun from a police car - and the only witnesses were kids who all described the thief very differently. We use this as a sort of "negative" analogy and consider the four Gospels of Jesus and what we should think of their differing stories about Jesus, the way they differ in the order of events, and their somewha…
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We look at two ancient prayers that are very similar - both are called "Creeds". We consider why they were written, what they mean, and how they differ. We look at the broader issue of differentiating mechanical beliefs from a deep seated, personal, holistic notion of faith and what it means to emulate Jesus. We also consider a very large rat that …
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My father's father served in the trenches in World War I - and came home very mentally ill. He proceeded to abandon his family and live on the street (in Quebec) - and commit violent crimes. We look at the millstone metaphor of Jesus'. He told us that it was better to put a millstone around our necks and jump into the sea than draw someone away fro…
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We consider a passage from Isaiah - from three different translations. We focus on one word from Hebrew that is translated alternately as "wait", "trust", and "hope". Which translation is correct? We decide which is the best translation, and from this, we determine that there is a huge lesson in this passage about how Christians should live their d…
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We look at the Gospel of John, the thoughtful, literary Gospel, from which we derive much of what we believe. We see that Scripture can be very subtle and can be filled with double entendres. Looking at the foot washing scene in John as a primary example, we consider the depth and the nuances that are often missed by modern readers of English trans…
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We look at a book that most Christians are not that familiar with - Malachi. He is "the Messenger" from God who tells us that God will refine us like gold and silver. We look how God works to refine us, largely by building our confidence that we can indeed live as godly, good people. We consider what we as Christians look to as our leader through l…
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We look at the word "logos" ("λόγος") in the Bible. We look at its true, deep meaning, a meaning that is very difficult for a non-Greek speaker to appreciate. We discover that translating this word correctly and looking at the magnificent, poetic intro to the Gospel of John, we learn about our role as the faithful, the reason Jesus came to us, and …
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We look at rendering of 3D wireframe images inside a computer into 2D, simulated 3D full color video. We draw an analogy of God rendering us from empty wireframes devoid of color and life into full color living human beings who have been forgiven. We consider Psalm 116, which notes God has rescued the Psalmist from Sheol or Hades, and which asks ho…
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The title of this podcast comes from something my boy, who is 32, said when he was 3. We're going to look at the derivation of the name "Jesus", and learn some intriguing things about it. This will help us understand a parallel between the story of the conquest of Canaan with the story of Jesus. It will teach us something about language. It will al…
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For a millennia and a half, the Silk Road provided a vast avenue of exchange for trading commercial products, carrying on philosophical discussion and for the transmission of faith. We look at how this might have impacted the development of Christianity. We also look at the new Silk Road - the Internet, and we consider its positive and negative imp…
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We look at the Book of Acts of the Apostles - which is very inappropriately named - and how it tells us of the incredible missionary journey of the Holy Spirit. We learn of the immensely deeper and inspiring sense that the earliest believers had of the Holy Spirit, compared to our modern notion. We see that we do not have to wait for Jesus to retur…
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We look at the apocryphal book, the Book of Tobit. It is a wild tale in which a man marries a woman who has had seven previous bridegrooms die before the marriage was consumated, a man is blinded by bird crap, and an angel disguises himself as a man. It is also a tale that tells us just what it means to be a Christian. We will also look at how the …
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We look at the Genesis story of creation: many call it a useless myth, and say that we need to focus on the real, scientific way in which we came into existence. We see that there is tremendous truth in the Creation Story, and that in it we see the most critical facts about why we exist and what we are meant to do on this planet. We discover that t…
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I once had a student in one of my university courses come to my office after not having done any work all semester. Without asking if anything was wrong, I launched into a professorial lecture about how he should have been doing what I told him to do if he wanted a decent grade, and no, I would not give him an incomplete. He would fail. He broke do…
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I once drove to Mexico with my half-Brazilian father. When we drove back over the border, he discovered that he had forgotten to take an ID with him - and of course, he looked like a Mexican. In this podcast, we look at the task of building our church today. We realize that we are judged in very superficial ways - as I was afraid my father would be…
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When I was in kindergarten I decided one day to hitchhike to school. I stood on the sidewalk with my thumb out. Quickly, someone did indeed pick me up. We look at God's grace and how it can protect us, both spiritually and physically. We consider the issue of what our role is in God being able to use his grace to keep us from harm and to limit evil…
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I once spoke with a woman who was dying from heavily metastasized cancer. She was worried that she would miss her daughter's wedding. I talked to her about the wedding that really matters, the one that both she and her daughter would be at - the wedding from the parable Jesus told. In this parable, the wedding stands for the final judgement. We loo…
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I had an aunt who owned a pet ocelot. One night, a man with a gun tried to rob her. That ocelot loved my aunt beyond anything in the world. The ocelot bit off the robber's forearm. God is that kind of protector for us. We do not have to earn that protection with good works. Our faith is enough to ensure that God will always be with us. We look at a…
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We look at one of the biggest complaints about the Bible: the brutal massacre of the Canaan people, ordered by God. We take a historical perspective on the Bible, when, by whom, and how it was written. We consider the Canaan story in this historical context. We also look at a buddy of mine who got shot by a farmer with a shotgun. Our goal is to fig…
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We look at a major issue in our society today: the insistence that people are either our allies, that they completely buy into our priorities and stand side by side with us as soldiers - or they must be considered enemies. We consider a man whom I knew as a boy, a man who married a woman with 7 young children. This man did not live that way. He loo…
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We look at a story that was apparently inserted after the fact in the Gospel of John: the story of the adulterous woman. We discover that it is a very complex, multi-faceted story that requires great study. The Pharisees want to stone the woman to death. Jesus writes in the dirt and mysteriously, the Pharisees slither away. Why did they do this? Wh…
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When I was a young man working as a computer programmer in a subbasement office, I met a man who had been badly maimed by a grenade thrown in his tank in World War II. He gave me a perspective of God and our dependence on God that is reflected in a very unusual Psalm - number 37. This Psalm is very much in the Wisdom literature category. It tells u…
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The opening of Hebrews tells us about the difference between Old Testament revelation and the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant was the ponderous War and Peace, but the New Covenant is the shortest of short stories - and one delivered not by a long series of human prophets, but by the Son of God himself. We look at what that means for us…
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There is tremendous conflict in the Christian Church in the U.S. and in the world today. We look at a letter called 3 John, the shortest book in the New Testament, by number of words, and we get a glimpse of conflict in the very early Church. We see that even at the very beginning of the Church, conflict like we have today arose. In the letter, we …
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The Didache is an Ancient Greek document that perhaps should have made its way into our Bible - but it didn't. It could have been written as early as the year 50 A.D., and it might have been source material for one or more Gospel. It was long lost - until it was rediscovered in the late 1800's. We look at its content: the Didache (the "Teaching") t…
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We return to the Book of Acts, and to a man who I spoke with, a man who was about to find out if he had cancer. We look at a very powerful theme in the Book, but something that is often overlooked: our ability, if we accept the gift, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. We see what it did, not just to the Apostles and to Paul, but to ordinary volun…
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We study the Torah - and consider the often talked about issue of it teaming with ridiculous laws, such as not being allowed to wear clothing made of two different materials, like linen and wool. In truth, we discover some very demanding - but valuable - laws, ones that push us way beyond the norms of our nation. We see what it means to put some re…
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I recently met a man who was confronting a potentially terrifying biopsy result, but who knew that the Spirit was more powerful than any cancer. We consider the often-forgotten Holy Spirit, whom very few Christians fully appreciate. We look at the Spirit from the perspective of the Book of Acts. We see how the spread of the faith from Jerusalem out…
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Tyrian purple dye, which was, in truth, purple snail snot, was extraordinarily valuable in the ancient world - worth three times its weight in gold, at a time when gold was extremely rare. We look at our possessions today, things we highly value, and we ask: will they be the purple snail snot of the future? And what about that other incredible valu…
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I once spoke with a woman who had been through at least three major medical journeys. She felt a constant pull between Grace and fear in her life. She desperately need Grace to win the battle within her. We look at one way that has been used to categorize Grace: Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying Grace. Our goal isn't to memorize any particula…
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A common complaint against the Bible, in particular, the resurrection story, is that the intense symbolism and numerology of the Bible tells us that it is fictional, that it couldn't possibly represent reality. We look at the Easter story, at what is indeed a dramatic resurrection scene, and which introduces one of the most important phases of Jesu…
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We look at Jesus as he approaches the cross and as he is crucified. He gives us two moral challenges, ones that for the world today, are incredibly important. We look at these challenges offered by a dying Messiah.由BuzzKing
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Matthew focuses on Jesus as the Messiah promised in many Old Testament prophesies - and thus seems to be writing for Jews. Luke focuses on Jesus as a prophet, seeming to address Gentiles. We look at my Scout Master, who was blind, and who inspired me (many, many years later) to look at the Gospel of Luke and consider Jesus as our Prophet. On Palm S…
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I once spoke with a young man whose father had been a corrupt Methodist Reverend - a man who treated young women in his congregations as prey. Before his father was exposed and arrested - when this young man was in high school - the Easter season had been his favorite time of year. We talked about the Gospel of Luke - and the long walk from Caperna…
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We look at the sometimes confusing, and historically controversial, core Christian concept of the Trinity. We we look at how this notion of three Gods in one - but only One God - guides us toward an understanding of the three major gifts that we receive from our God. Importantly, we look at that incredible gift of Sanctification.…
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We take a broad look at the three "Synoptic" Gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, and how they portray Jesus as a humble, even meek spiritual Messiah. We compare this to the sometimes outspoken and vocal Jesus in the Gospel of John who declares himself to the the Light of the World. Why is Jesus so secretive about who he is in the Synoptic Gospels? Wh…
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