Ask Away

Imagine jumping into a game without knowing when it started, when it will finish, what the rules are, or even the objective—without that information, your participation would be totally meaningless! And yet, how many of us are walking through life without answers to those same fundamental questions? In this episode of Ask Away, Vince suggests that every person needs answers to these questions, and only one person can provide them. 

For many of us, it feels incredibly stressful to unexpectedly find ourselves in a religious or political conversation with anybody, friend or stranger, who holds radically different views from our own. When that happens, how do you handle the situation? And what does the other person walk away thinking and feeling, after they have encountered you? This week on Ask Away, Jo Vitale considers how Jesus Christ handled being in a simila...

We all have desires, but what are we supposed to do with them? Which makes for a better life—pursuing or suppressing desires? Indulging them or fearing them? In this episode of Ask Away, Jo and Vince talk about the role of desire in the Christian faith, and if the real problem might not be that we want too much, but that we’re settling for far too little. 

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We’re so glad you joined us for Ask Away. If you have a question tha...

Perhaps the two greatest callings for a Christian are to live with God and to live with God’s people. Tragically, many who go by the name Christian are doing neither, having been deceived into settling for the counterfeits of believing intellectually in God and going to church. What if we need to completely reframe how we conceive of the Christian life? If you’ve been trying to live as a Christian for a long time but always find yo...

It's a confusing time to be alive. We celebrate a diversity of people and experiences, but we fear a diversity of thought and beliefs. It's ok to live your truth, so long as you don't infringe on mine. Undergirding this cultural consensus is the assumption that making truth claims inevitably leads to disagreement, and disagreement is the start of a slippery slope into division and dehumanization. But is truth really an act of war a...

In a world of online connection, we are all a “follower” of somebody—or a multitude of somebodies! So where does that leave Jesus? Is he just one among a multitude of influencers we engage with from afar, or is he looking for something more from us? In this episode of Ask Away, Jo Vitale discusses what Jesus really meant when he invited his first hearers to “come, follow me!” 

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We’re so glad you joined us for Ask Away. If yo...

Many of us will spend more than half of our waking lives working. We frequently joke about “the grind” of work and living for the weekend, but that doesn’t seem like much of a way to live. If the goal of work is retirement, then what does that say about the work in the first place? Is work a punishment for the fall? Will there be work in heaven? In this episode of Ask Away, Jo and Vince consider whether work is merely a necessary e...

Christianity has long claimed to be for every person, irrespective of who you are or where you're from. Does Jesus undermine that claim and show himself not to be divine, or even not worth following, by making a racial slur against a foreign woman? In this episode of Ask Away, Vince and Jo talk about what we should make of this confusing interaction between Jesus and the "Canaanite" woman in Matthew 15 and Mark 7.

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Isn't there something feudalistic and demeaning about "worshipping" God? What modern, rational, free and autonomous person would want to do that? And what is "worship," anyway? Is it just Christian karaoke, or something more? In this episode of Ask Away, recorded at Menlo Church in California, Jo considers both why we worship and what it looks like to worship God authentically. 

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At the heart of the Nicene Creed (325 AD) we find the words: “For our sake [Jesus] was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered, died, and was buried.” But how is it possible that someone who died 2,000 years ago could have died for our sake?! And if Jesus is God, how could He have died? And why would He have died—was this something He chose, or something He was coerced to do? In this episode of Ask Away, Jo Vitale engages with ...

"1+1+1 = 1 is not going to get you a pass in mathematics." This comment, made by a Muslim apologist and spoken word artist, is an intriguing critique! When Christians claim that there is one God in three persons, are they making a contradictory statement? When it comes to the nature of God, how much can we really know about him, anyway? And what difference—if any—does it make to us if God is in fact Trinitarian? In this week's epis...

Could it be, paradoxically, that the very things that lead to success in youth can set us up for struggles and hurt later in life? If so, what can we do about this in our own lives and the lives of our children? And how are the notions of success, winning, and competition reconceived and redeemed within the Christian faith? 

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The Bible makes a very strong claim that God has provided “confirmation for all by raising Jesus from the dead” (Acts 17:31), and the case for the resurrection was right at the center of Vince’s journey to Christ. On this episode, Jo interviews him about the core reasons for the resurrection that can be shared simply and straightforwardly with anyone who is seeking truth this Easter. 

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If you could choose to live at any time in history, when would you live? I am tempted to answer, “When Jesus walked the earth.” How awesome it would be to be present for the Sermon on the Mount, to talk with Jesus, to laugh with him, to recline against his chest in friendship as John did. But here’s the thing: None of the apostles would have given that answer. Not in a million years! Can you think of why not? This episode about the...

We live in a world that is deeply conflicted over when human life begins. Even our language surrounding the unborn is contested—are we talking about a “baby” or a “product of conception”? Are we talking about a potential life or an actual human person? How many bodies and whose rights are relevant to “my body, my rights”? And is it anti-woman to be pro-life, or could it be that to love the unborn is to recognize the absolute value ...

In the previous episode “Is God giving us the silent treatment?”, Jo and Vince shared that God is desiring to speak with us consistently and clearly. That is really exciting news, but only if we are able to hear what He is saying. So how can we learn to hear the voice of God?

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We’re so glad you joined us for Ask Away. If you have a question that needs answering, we’d love to hear it. Send us an email at askawayquestion@gmail....

Whatever the differences between us as human beings, one thing that we all have in common is our familiarity with pain. Whether you’ve experienced a season of intense suffering in the past, you’re living through it in the present, or it is yet to come, none of us get through life unscathed. No wonder, then, that at some point or another we have all found ourselves with this question on our lips or resounding in our hearts: “Why?! G...

Good communication is essential for any healthy relationship. What, then, does it say about our relationship with God that so often we experience prayer as completely one-sided, as if we're just yelling into the void? Is God truly a loving father, or more like a disinterested parent who won’t take the time to listen to and clearly engage with His children? And are we doomed to disappoint in this area, or could it be that we've actu...