The Cosmic Car Wash

Starting with Acts 17:28 we go on an exploration of what it means to live, move, have our being, exist, and find our identity in Jesus Christ. Paul borrowed this concept from two, at the time, well known Greek philosophers, Aratus and Cleanthus. Paul realized that Jesus is the integrating force of the entire universe and he worked with the contemporary language of his day to help his audiences understand this. Now, 2000 years or so...

The wilderness. It's often lonely, trying, and humbling. We've all been there in some form or fashion, whether it's estrangement from loved ones, the feeling that God is a million miles away, or just a crisis of faith that pushes us to our soul's breaking point. What can we learn from Moses, David, Elijah, and Jesus in their wilderness experiences? In this episode Rick shares stories of his own times in the wilderne...

For the first time in three months we're back in front of the mics. It was a great holiday period (albeit quite busy) but it's so good to come back and talk about the Kingdom of God. It's a new year but the message is the same. Today we talk about developing themes in our walk with God, particularly "presence" and what it means to be "people in two places at once." They may seem like disparate themes, but it's all about Jesus, our ...

What is the posture of a servant? There are no volunteers in the Kingdom of God, only servants. A servant is, perhaps more than anything else, available and humble. They don't bristle at service. They don't consider themselves too good for even the most menial task. Being a servant isn't a position, rather it's a condition of our hearts. There's a vast difference between a server and a servant. Jesus is without ...

Our discussion today ranges across a spectrum from the way the Bible continues to amaze us no matter how many times we read these inspired and timeless words to how we long just to be as much with Jesus as is possible. However, where we eventually land is that Eden is inevitable. The story God has been telling since the beginning is the only way that this will all turn out. We get to choose what side of the story we end up on, but ...

Somewhere I heard it said once, "In the end, people don't get what we deserve, we get what we desire." On the face of it, when considering this from the Eden perspective, the Kingdom of God viewpoint, I believe it's a true statement. But as we explore this topic further we realized it isn't so binary as it seems at first. And once we pushed into the topic further, it became clear that even God doesn't get what he deserves, but if w...

The Kingdom of God is not for spectators and the presence of God is not a vacation spot. Similarly, resilience doesn't happen by accident. It's our union with Jesus that restores our humanity and enables us to be a light in the darkness, that shining city on a hill Jesus spoke of. More than intimacy with Jesus, we are invited into, indeed we are made for union with Jesus. But this union must be cultivated. Like any farmer will tell...

Leaning into Jesus as much and as often as we can. Being authentically human. Living our lives like Jesus would if He were us. Jesus' thrilling and imminent return. Join us as we dive into God n' Stuff. We love talking about and living out the Kingdom of God. Of course every day we find ourselves not being fully the people that we want to be, but rather than getting DIScouraged, we are ENcouraged that Jesus keeps worki...

We've each got the particular lives we lead. They include our hobbies, our jobs, our families, friends, vacations, and moments that really matter to us. And of course those look different for everyone. What we explore in this episode is how we are each tempted every single day to go to those things for the resilience, rest, and recovery that God wants us to find in Him. We're not talking about sin, that is always wrong, but...

We just finished working our way through the book of Job, one of three books from the Old Testament classified as part of Israel's wisdom literature. Like many before us, and many who will come after us, we have been reflecting on his story. His friends were the worst, God never did explain to Job why he went through everything, and in the end Job was restored from all his suffering. There's a lot we can learn from Job and ...

We often say in church that no problem is too big or small for God, but when it comes to actual practice, we don't think to invite Jesus into our daily routine. Or, if we think about it, we convince ourselves that He doesn't care. Maybe we've heard someone else say to God (or we've said it ourselves), "God, if you're not busy..." But that's not the God that scripture teaches and that's not the ...

Let's be honest, life is a lot to deal with. It has been for as long as we can remember, but especially in the last four or five years it seems like the crazy of the world has been turned up to 11. A lot of time and money are spent on ways to help us find resilience, that ability to get up again each time you get knocked down. Mindfulness, presence, serenity...all well and good. But what do you do and where do you turn when the...

As has become our style, we just had a conversation the way we do about what to do when you don't know what to do. Rick texted me as he often does just to ask, "How ya doin' friend?" The prophet Daniel wrote that in the last days, the spirit of desolation would come on everyone living on the earth. Desolation makes serving God seem like too much of a chore. It wears us out and slighly beckons us to turn our search...

It was Aristotle who first used the phrase "The Unmoved Mover." (I didn't do the Google search to learn this till after we recorded so please forgive my ignorance during this episode.) God has always been in the background, working everything together for good for everyone who loves him. He's always been a good Father, standing on the porch, waiting for His wandering children to return to Him. In this episode we e...

Of all the episodes we done so far, the one that keeps coming up over and over for us is "Living With Open Hands" from April 11, 2022. So, two years later we thought it was time to revisit the topic. Basically, open hands is a way of saying and showing that we're giving everything to God. No grasping for what we think we need to live our version of the good life. No withholding any part of our lives at the risk of mis...

Pulling on a thread from our last episode, "Fixed On Eden", today we start with Hebrews 11:40-12:1 and talk about what things we throw away (throw off, cast off...depending on which version of the Bible you're reading) and conversely, what things we embrace. There's numerous examples we can look to in Scripture of people who either threw away sin or threw away "slavery to God" (see Psalm 2. How tragic!) ...

Another entry into the Eden Episodes, today we're talking about what it means to live with the continual expectation that today could be "the day." Jesus said it would be much like it was in Noah's day, as people are going about their ordinary lives, doing what they've always done, He will return and culminate the age. We survey scripture and our own lives in this episode and examine the ways we keep hope aliv...

Sometimes you just need to do things because it's the right thing to do and not necessarily because it's all planned out from start to finish. Thus we bring you more Warrior Poet cabbage. Catching up with one another, we talk about a range of things from:

- Our struggles with duplicity (and God's ensuing mercy and compassion)- The fact that the doctrine of the Rapture is fairly new and not biblical

- Our anticipation o...

We've all had the experience at some time or other of being awakened in the middle of the night to racing thoughts, worries, fears, and just the general sense that things are not okay. It's more than insomnia, though it could be that too. In the last several years there has been a dramatic rise in insomnia across all demographics, but that's not specifically what we're talking about today. So what do we do when our ...