Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for? Leave a comment on this post and let us know!

Hmmm… have you ever thought about what God is thankful for? A curious question! Join us in our thanksgiving episode as we banter with the idea of being thankful.

Also, we’d like to thank all of you for staying with us for the past year. We look forward to podcasting for the next year, and we’d love to have you all join us!

Discipleship is not about gaining knowledge as much as it is about building character. If someone asks you about the hope that they see in you, they must have seen something different in you that they didn’t see in someone else. Essentially this is verifying your salvation - not that you aren’t a Christian, but that you are a light to the world. How do you get to the point where people ask you this? By building you character!

How do we know if we are lukewarm, or even other Christians, for that matter? How do we keep ourselves from crossing the line of keeping someone accountable to judging them. Finally, what is the measuring stick we use to judge lukewarmness?

Should we care what other people think of us? Does our testimony matter, or rather, should it? This episode, we look at the importance of verifying salvation, as well as what is involved with it. Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!

Now that we’ve discussed what a worldview is, and proposed a definition of possible worldviews, let’s look at how we can apply our worldview to our daily lives. What do you use as a filter? What do you have at the center of your worldview? Also, we relate an awesome email from Justin that talks about this very topic. Hope you all enjoy!

A person's worldview constitutes the filter they look through at the world. That worldview is like a spider web, with core values on the inside and looser values on the outside. Every person's worldview is different, just as every person is unique in their own way. Join us this episode as we discuss this very interesting and actually very relevant topic.

Heroes are a fun topic, so we kinda got stuck on them (and their sidekicks) over the past few weeks. This episode, we put emphasis on the fact that even sidekicks can do amazing things for Christ. Did you know you’re significant, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a hero? So, this week, we finish up the sidekicks discussion, as well as wrap up the series. Look for a new topic next week! Oh, and stick around at the end of the episode again. It made me giggle, at least!

Episode 50! Well, we talked about heroes last couple of episodes, so now let’s talk about sidekicks. In today’s world, sidekicks often have a diminished role in popular culture. They are there as backup but they never get to play an important role like the hero. The Bible, however, has some “sidekicks” that go against the popular thinking in that they actually mattered and did things for Christ. These sidekicks were merely sidekicks in name - they were able to use their position to support, encourage and in some cases, lead.

Last week we looked at cultural heroes, so let's take it a step further and look at Biblical heroes this week. What makes a good hero? Do all heroes have to be perfect? Maybe the best hero is someone we can identify with. Join us this week as we try to answer these kinds of questions!

Also, be sure to stick around at the end of this week's episode, and don't forget to let us know who your heroes are!

I'm if asked, everyone could come up with at least one hero that has either influenced them or has at least made an impact on their lives. This episode, we take a little informal break and talk about our own heroes, both spiritual and cultural.

We thought we would do a laid-back approach to this episode. With the approaching school year comes changes in schedules and for us, difficulty in getting together to record episodes. We are considering changing the amount of episodes per week as well as length of each episode. So, we’d like to hear your ideas and thoughts on the issue! Please contact us here or via email to weigh in!

Another series has come to an end, and this episode, we conclude our "baby-proofing" series with more on discipleship. Building relationships, seeking discipleship and participating in fellowship are all areas of the modern church that have fallen by the wayside. If you've never experienced being discipled, or discipling someone else for that matter, you are missing out on an important aspect of the Christian life! So, as we wrap this series up, that is our challenge.

This episode, it’s all about discipleship and how it’s a missing element in Christianity. Many of those places we fail, such as falling down stairs, opening too many doors, taking too much medicine, etc., are areas where discipleship is key.

After a short break, we're glad to be back!

This episode, we continue on with the our "baby-proofing" series as we talk about the medicine cabinet. I'm sure everyone has had or has seen the spot in a house where medicine or chemicals are stored, whether they are under a sink, in a drawer or behind the mirror. Obviously, taking too much medication or using too much of a certain chemical than what is intended can have disastrous effects. How does this correlate to our Christian lives, then? Listen to this week's episode to find out!

If you've ever been in a house with a small child, you most likely have seen a gate at the entrance to stairs. The gate is there, obviously, to keep that child from falling since they don't realize the danger that lies below.

How many times have we been at the edge of stairs looking below? Have you ever fallen spiritually, emotionally, physically? This episode, we look at ways to safe-guard ourselves from falling down life's stairs.

Continuing on with the theme of “child-proofing your life”, we look at doors in this episode. Putting locks on doors or cabinets keep children safe. Many times, curiosity and ignorance gets the best of them. Throughout life, we encounter many different doors, entry ways into other areas. We have to decide which doors we’ll go through and which ones we won’t, and “child-proofing” those doors can keep us safe from going through doors we shouldn’t.

This episode, we start a brand-new series entitled "Putting Plastic In Electrical Outlets", or more simply "child-proofing your life". If you've ever had siblings or children, you most certainly have seen child-proofing products, such as outlet plugs, door clips, stair gates, and so on. How does this relate to the Christian life, then? One specific example is discipling new Christians to develop a relationship with Christ. Too often do new believers get left in the corner to fend for themselves. Maybe you've been in the same boat. Join us for this series as we dive not only into discipleship, but all areas of the Christian life where "child-proofing" or guarding ourselves against sin and Satan become necessary if we desire to further our walk with God.

In this final episode of the series, we take a different perspective on Elijah's learning experience in the cave. As God brings in the fire, the earthquake, and the wind, He reveals to Elijah that He isn't in those things. Maybe you've experienced similar situations of emotions and chatter or "earthquakes" in your life. God may not always be in those things, but He wants you to learn how to work through them. Again, He's that small voice that guides you through situations like that.

Elijah begins to realize that he has to change his perspective. God provides a very teachable moment in this section of the story for Elijah regarding humility. God also gives Elijah an assistant - Elisha, who will go on to provide his own stories and lessons.

We continue with Elijah's emotional downfall this week. ELijah is finally offered a glimpse of how God works - and it's not how one would expect. God shows Elijah that sometimes He doesn't work through big and flashy productions but rather in a small whisper or a gentle breeze.

Physically worn, Elijah was simply down. Maybe you’ve been here before, almost depressed, as you begin to neglect physical needs while being emotionally defeated by what appears to you to be failure. Priorities, patience and faith come hand-in-hand when healing during these times. God promises His grace to us to heal us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Remember, God deeply loves and cares for you and knows exactly what you need; He ministers to us when ministry sucks!

During times of hardship, often times we simply want to give up. God however wants to bring us through those times of pain, and He provides just enough to get us through.

As a continuation of Episode #34, we look into the moment in Elijah's life when he said, "enough is enough" and was at the brink of quiting. Have you felt that way when serving? Have you felt as if you just can't go on any further? Have you ever felt like you're in the "desert" of life? We have to realize that we absolutely cannot focus on ourselves. Keep your eyes focused on Him, and once you do, see what He does!

Ministry, whether it be full-time or not, can be overwhelming at times. This episode, we look more deeply at the story of Elijah and his ministry burn-out. As you'll see, God was able to encourage and uplift Elijah at a time when, to put it frankly, ministry simply sucked.

This week, we take a break from any series to offer encouragement and a challenge for those who may have given up on the Christian life.

At last, we made it! The final "flavor" of Christians - homemade. This episode is a challenge for all of those who may be at a different point in their Christian life. Homemade ice cream takes hard work - it takes churning, time and patience. Likewise, becoming a "homemade ice cream" Christian takes faith, molding, patience, time, maturity - it's not easy! It might even hurt a little, but in the end, the end product tastes so good!

Truth be told, there are some who come to church on a regular basis that are not Christians. These people can be considered "fat free" because they lack the "fat" of Christianity. There are two kinds of "fat free" people: those who are seeking a relationship with Christ but haven't found it yet; and those who have grown up religiously but have never made a personal commitment to Christ. Gaining that personal relationship with Christ doesn't require church membership, or doing good deeds, or paying money to the church. He only requires that you have faith and ultimately accept Him as your Savior. Good stuff!

Smoothies, although they may be rare, are those who take advantage of the church and try to make a quick buck. More often than not, these kinds of people often cause more damage than good and usually only benefit themselves. Keep in mind that we're not talking about those sincere programs out there, but rather those whose goal is to profit off of other Christians.

This is probably the most common Christian - the "chocolate sundae", Sunday only Christian. Have you been here, or are you here right now? I'm sure nearly everyone has at one point in their life. Having a lack of commitment, having the wrong attitude, or maybe simply being apathetic can all contribute to being a "chocolate sundae" Christian. Realize that all Christians have the responsibility to use their spiritual gifts and contribute to the body throughout the week. It's a continuous walk with Christ, not just on Sunday.

The next flavor in the series, Banana Splits, are those Christians who tend to do as the flavor implies - cause splits or quarrels in the church. More often than not, power is what they seek the most and they focus on ways they can take control of this or that. If you can identify with this, remember that God has designed the church to allow the pastor, or shepherd, to guide the body - even pastors can suffer from wanting too much control. Remember that you are an integral part of God's church, His body. Take your concerns to the pastor or if you leave, inform the pastor of your decision. We understand that this type of Christian and situation is not easy to discuss, but be encouraged to know that God has things under control!

Often times, Christians who are "blizzards" tend to add to what the Bible says, whether that be to salvation, to morality, and so on. Legalism, or putting the law over everything else, can destroy Christianity and divide the body of Christ. Adding to the Bible not only shows that what God wrote isn't good enough, but it is also very hypocritical.

Remember, if you follow the Word of God, you can't go wrong. When we add to it, we set ourselves up for trouble.

Peppermint-type of Christians are those who focus only on feelings and emotions. Remember, nothing is wrong with emotions, but you have to make sure to balance them in your overall Christian life. If you're only going to operate off feelings and unrealistic expectations, disappointment will greet you as you grow. The Christian life gets difficult and we'll have to meet hard times and sin! You will never see only happy times as a Christian, and everyone goes through trials and tests. An encouragement for those of you who do meet disappointment and trials, then, is to remember that you haven't lost your relationship with Christ, only the luster. He's always there for you, no matter what!

Falling into this type of Christianity is easy because it involves seeing things in black and white. If this fits you, realize that there’s more to life than good and bad, black and white! God wants His relationship with you to be more than this right or wrong. Serving Him out of a sense of duty, or becoming a Christian out of fear, can turn off non-Christians and can push away other Christians. Ultimately, God’s grace and direction can guide you to the in-between lifestyle, one that brings joy!

Let's take a look at the first kind of Christian - Rocky Road. These are Christians that go through hard times and have never learned how to handle their situations, making them bitter and tart. However, take a look at Proverbs 3:6. If you struggle with this, you don't have to live and walk down that rocky road all your life! God shows us that if you recognize and follow Him and live for Him, He'll guide your path - He'll show you how to get off that rocky road!

We begin a brand new series, all about the different "flavors" of Christians out there. To bring it home, we try to compare types of Christians to flavors of ice cream. When you go looking to buy ice cream, you soon realize just how many flavors exist - and this is true for Christianity, too. Each week, we'll take a new flavor and associate it with a type of Christian that might be similar to that flavor.

Living right is first achieved by your thinking, which is what we talked about last week. By changing the way you think, you are able to practice a practical lifestyle. Once you have learned how to think, it's up to you to take that and apply it to your own life. The way you live goes hand-in-hand with the way you think! If you put into practice what you learn, you gain the power of God's peace, eliminating any anxiety, which goes back to our first episode in this series. All of these topics are related, and if you give Him your burdens and actively work to change the way you think, God can do wonders.

A further extension of gaining peace from God is positive thinking, or correct thinking. What we fill our minds with truly affects our everyday living. Often times we lie to ourselves or think on negative things much more often than anything positive. Philippians 4 talks about the types of things we should think about. By changing the way we think, we are able to give God our worry and gain from Him our peace; it's all connected and related! This week, try to surround yourself with positive people as well as try to find the positive in situations you would normally only find the negative. With the peace of God and positive thinking, we move closer to living a joyful life.

This episode, we continue the talk of finding peace during times of worry and anxiety. The real key to finding this peace is having complete faith and trust that He'll give us peace in the first place! Once we are able to trust that He'll give that peace to us, we find strength, then, to move on through whatever may be troubling us. Remember a few episodes ago when we talked about uploading our worry to God? That strength and peace we'll gain will allow us to push through that after we've given whatever is bothering us to Him.

If God allows us to give him our worry, is there anything we get in return? Well, He gives us something that literally exceeds our mental capacity! When we throw our burdens of anxiety and worry onto God, He gives us a peace that we can't even comprehend. Peace that passes our human knowledge. Often times we never take a step back and allow that peace to hit us. The next time you worry about this or that, try letting God take it and see what He gives you back!

I'm sure all of us have been worried about this or that at least once in our lives. Being anxious or worrying are a natural part of being human, and God knows this! This episode, Al looks at a few verses that advise us to give that burden of anxiety to God. Guess what? God is so interested and concerned about us that he WANTS us to give all of our worries to Him. By doing this, well, we'll talk about the benefits next week!

God doesn't tell time the way we do by looking at a clock or calendar. Rather, He sees not only our entire life picture but also our children and our grandchildren. To put it simply, God has bigger plans than even we may know right this instant. Having faith is ultimately the only way we can live by His timing, and remember, He can use any situation, good or bad, for good! That's very encouraging.

God is more powerful than any problem or trial we will every face. Why does God seem to be so far away sometimes, then? As we discuss in this episode, in order to live according to God's Will requires something that doesn't come to us normally: faith. Think of it as a sort of sixth sense, if you will... and if we live by faith, He will be there for us! God ultimately wants us to completely trust Him in our day-to-day living, and quite often, that's what it takes to live by His Will.

We dive deeper into the Bible this week to discover how we can live like Christ and be filled with His will. The Holy Spirit is brought into the discussion - how He is the one that fills us with that will of God! Ultimately, the direction for our life lies in God's teachings and the advice He gave to us. The only problem is that we never tap into the available resources! Find out how having the desire to be more like Christ and living for Him through the Bible will fill us with God's plan in this week's episode.

Pulling it all together, we dive into the Bible this week and look at how His own words guide us. Even though we may never find this magical treasure chest with God's map for our life in it, we can get road signs, directions and advice straight from Him! You may think to yourself, how do I do this? How can I get this priceless information? Guess what!? We can discover these things if we just open the Bible and honestly have a desire to take in what He wants us to learn! ... and how comforting and amazing is that?

In this third episode of the series, we begin to realize that God is more concerned with us trying to find Him rather than us trying to find His "will".  How can we define what God's "will" is exactly? Is it a dot on a map, is it a line on a blueprint? More than either of these, God is waiting for us to find Him and Him alone. All other things are useless until we desire Him first!

If living in the now is what God wants, how do we go about doing it? Well, the will of God is more about being the right person than making the right decisions. When we focus less on leaning left and right and more on living right, only then are we able to fall into His hands and His plan.

This new series, we ponder the question: is God playing games with us? Too often do we find ourselves focused on the future and worrying about what is to come. More importantly, however, is what we do with today! Join us this episode as we discuss living in the now.

We hope your Christmas went well and was enjoyable! In this short episode, Al provides a new year challenge as a lead-up to the next series. What can possibly be better than the most well-known new year resolutions? How about following Christ and letting him guide you into the new year!

Maybe you have made a mistake. Well, you are definitely not alone! What happens if the moment comes and you mess up? God knows we are human and knows we will inevitably screw up time and time again. Guess what? He has forgiven you and will continue to forgive you from here on out! Knowing that, then, we are able to have real potential for a new moment and a new future. What a great opportunity to have!

Patience, patience, patience. Something so easy to talk about yet so difficult to practice, even more so when it comes to sexuality. By being prepared for the moment, you enable yourself to be patient and wait for that moment as well. Only God can take away our anxiety, and with His power, we can be patient for anything!