All of the Above

The questions Trevor and Aaron tackle: What happened to the toy room? Why don’t we do the feasts given to Israel any longer?  What about the Lord’s Supper? Why didn’t Trevor mention mention that? Isn’t that literally a “feast” Christians practice? Why aren’t we taking the Lord's Supper during our time apart?

Schools are closed for the foreseeable future due to Covid-19. That means there are lots of parents in our body who now have to figure out what it looks like to homeschool.  Trevor thought it’d be helpful to recruit a few of our homeschooling mothers to give some advice to those of us newly-minted homeschooling parents.  What do we need to know? Recognizing that some of us have been thrown into the fire with no experience or preparation, what are some helpful things to remember and a few best practices? And what are a few heart-level encouragements for us in this season? Listen to Trevor's chat with Sarah Gilliam, one our pastor's wives, with some additional help from two members of TCGS, Lauren Riddle and Leah Weisbecker. Two encouragements: You CAN do this! Close proximity means lots of great discipleship opportunities for the kids. Seven practical tips: Care for your own soul first. Get dressed! Have a schedule (written in pencil). Breaks are your friend. Read together! Use God's good world. Enjoy this time.

The questions Trevor and Aaron tackle: Is Trevor wearing a nice button down from the waist up and pajama pants from the waist down? Can you speak to the collateral damage of God’s wrath? How can this passage be used to give hope and truth to those around us who are not believers? Why would God allow evil such as Boko Haram, genocide, Hitler, etc?

Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Family worship is one of the key ways we can do that.  Let's take advantage of this forced reset and institute this discipline! Goal isn’t to be perfect; it’s to be good enough!   1. Read — passage; psalm, story, parable of Jesus, a few lines from an epistle (take turns reading!) 2. Pray — pray in light of the passage, pray for salvation, pray for health, ask God’s wisdom in family decisions, etc. 3. Sing — a verse and chorus of a song from church! There's nothing magical, just faith in God’s working through the cumulative of years of these means of grace. Remember: all ministry is farming!  It requires patience, stick-to-it-tiveness, and long-term vision. 

What does Screwtape have to say about the coronavirus?  Listen up. The quote Trevor read from Screwtape Letters: You say you are "delirious with joy" because the European humans have started another of their wars. I see very well what has happened to you. You are not delirious; you are only drunk… Do not allow any temporary excitement to distract you from the real business of undermining faith and preventing the formation of virtues. Give me without fail in your next letter a full account of the patient's reactions to the war, so that we can consider whether you are likely to do more good by making him an extreme patriot or an ardent pacifist. There are all sorts of possibilities. In the meantime, I must warn you not to hope too much from a war. Of course a war is entertaining. The immediate fear and suffering of the humans is a legitimate and pleasing refreshment for our myriads of toiling workers. But what permanent good does war do us unless we make use of it for bringing souls to Our Father Below? When I see the temporal suffering of humans who finally escape us, I feel as if I had been allowed to taste the first course of a rich banquet and then denied the rest. It is worse than not to have tasted it at all. The Enemy, true to His barbarous methods of warfare, allows us to see the short misery of His favourites only to tantalise and torment us-to mock the incessant hunger which, during this present phase of the great conflict, His blockade is admittedly imposing. Let us therefore think rather how to use, than how to enjoy, this European war.  For it has certain tendencies inherent in it which are, in themselves, by no means in our favour. We may hope for a good deal of cruelty and unchastity. But, if we are not careful, we shall see thousands turning in this tribulation to the Enemy, while tens of thousands who do not go so far as that will nevertheless have their attention diverted from themselves to values and causes which they believe to be higher than the self... Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy's party, prepared. How much better for us if all humans died in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie, as we have trained them, promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sickness excuses every indulgence, and even, if our workers know their job, withholding all suggestion of a priest lest it should betray to the sick man his true condition! And how disastrous for us is the continual remembrance of death which war enforces. One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless. In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever.

Trevor and Bryce talk about the self and the teachings of Jesus. How are we to think about being ourselves when Jesus calls us to die to self? Give us a listen and learn what made Bryce's last Thursday so special?

"For many, the idea that Christianity is a white, Western religion, intrinsically tied to cultural imperialism, stands a major ethical barrier to considering Christ."  --Rebecca McLaughlin, Confront Christianity So how are we to think about this question?  Does Christianity necessarily crush diversity?

We sing some of the best songs ever written this time of year. What are some of the greatest? And what makes them great? And which is the most emo of the Christmas / Advent songs? This and more!

Remember the setting; a grandparent's kitchen, cookies baking. A best friend's basement with a retro video game system. The smell of your dad after cutting the grass.  The soundtrack to your studies at college. We're all nostalgic for something.  We all possess a longing for some good ole days long gone. We think fondly of these memories with joy and sadness. We're *especially* nostalgic around Christmas. So what is nostalgia? Why are we nostalgic?  And what might nostalgia be directing us toward? Trevor and Jim Slice talk through this topic on this week's episode.

We'd all like to change. But into what? And why? Something we hope is that every person a part of our church changes. Trevor and Aaron discuss a book that we think is a really helpful resource in pursuing the right sort of change.