Chapter 3 of 1 John concludes with a case study of love. What is love? What does it look like? We dive into the second major theme of this letter: God is love. And because God is love, He expects His children to be examples of true love. From extreme examples of hatred like Cain to more reassurances about our relationship with God, we explore this fascinating passage ..read more

As we move through our study in 1 John, we come to a major theme in John's letter: we are God's children. Being part of God's family is a major theme in the Bible, going all the way back to Genesis. We take a look at what that means in the context of the believer's relationship with sin and sanctification. To catch the story at the end of the episode about Kreig hiding a cat in his college dorm, check out Season 2, Episode 9 with guest co-host Jomel Delossantos ..read more

(Originally recorded in May 2021) John's letter continues with a well-known passage about not loving the world or the things in the world. But what does that even mean? This section of the book deals heavily with the spiritual attacks on the faith and the deity of Christ that Christians were enduring in that time ..read more

John's letter deals a lot with our duties as Christians. What should a believer in fellowship look like? Who should she be? A large part of this answer revolves around loving "the brethren" (aka, the church). Our ability to love other believers is extremely foundational to our faith. In fact, 1 John explains that those who are incapable of loving other Christians are probably not even saved. We end this section of the book going over John's beautifully worded statements about the Christians he was writing to. In the nerd corner, we talk about Superman & Lois as well as The Falcon and the W ..read more

1 John has a lot to say about fellowship. In fact, it's one of the underlying themes of the whole book! John the Apostle was writing to remind Christians of the great fellowship we share with Jesus and with each other. It's this two-fold fellowship that is so necessary to understand the book as a whole. God created us to be in relationship with Him, and then to be in community with others who worship Him. This original design is reinstalled in us by Christ as salvation, and it's essential to a healthy Christian life. This letter also speaks a lot about the relationship between the believer and ..read more

Season 3 of the podcast starts with a brand new study through the letters of John the Apostle. As we look at 1 John, we talk about the overarching theme of assurance of salvation and how that confidence shapes our walk with Jesus. John wrote this first letter in a very unusual format, which can make it seem hard to follow and understand. But over the course of our study, we'll see how John's unique style emphasizes and elevates his message about confidence in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. We also talk about how light and darkness are not a balance, but two opposing forces and that l ..read more

We conclude the study of the book of Esther by examining how Esther and Mordecai dealt with the impending "kill" order that Haman had gotten written into law. Through this last section, we see God's ultimate justice and His salvation and care for His people. As His church, we can take heart knowing we share in the victory that Christ has already won and that God will one day right all the wrongs that plague the world now ..read more

The book of Esther is ramping up quickly now as Haman's grand, evil plans unravel at a breakneck speed. In the span of 24 hours, Haman goes from living his best life and feeling like royalty to seeing his plans foiled and his life taken. Irony dominates this part of this historical narrative, and God's providence again is plainly seen ..read more

Chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Esther include some of the most pivotal moments of the whole story. Mordecai and Esther discuss Haman's horrific plan, and Mordecai pleads with Esther to do something about it. In an awesome move, Esther takes ownership of her faith and the fate of the Jews of Persia and decides to attempt to fix things. Major themes in this section include faith and prayer. We also analyze how Esther's plan to delay her request by inviting the king and Haman to feasts was brilliantly strategic ..read more

This week, we finally meet the human villain of the story of Esther: Haman the Agagite. Haman was a pretty bad dude (Hitler-level bad, honestly), and in this episode, we see how Mordecai's decision to stand up to Haman set off the rest of the chain of events in the book. A master of the silver tongue, Haman knew just what to tell King Xerxes to get him to sign off on the total genocide of the Jewish population of Persia. Just what pushed Haman to this psychotic rage, as well as what Mordecai was taking a stand for exactly, are not fully known, but Haman's ancestors and the once-whole nation of ..read more