Word of Life Church Podcast

Ours is an age of acute empirical perception that affords spectacular scientific and technological developments, but our age is also an epoch of dire spiritual dullness leading to a deep poverty of the soul. This lack of spiritual perceptivity engenders a profound sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. To recover meaning we need to rediscover the paths of unseen existences.

MonstersDave Matthews BandBroke old toy soldiers lined up one, two, threeLittle kid and everything I did just to save my paper queen'Cause love won't let me goYeah, no army's gonna save my soul'Cause love won't let me goNothing in the closetNothing underneath the bedJust the monsters in your headI hear strange voices at every step I takeNo, you can't cross the ocean if you can't get past the breakEven if fear don't put you downWon't you lean on me while I'm aroundOh, no rope to hang the deadNo line to save the drowning manJust the monsters in your headNothing in the closetNothing underneath the bedJust the monsters in your headSee killer's eyes and painted facesThe Devil wants your soul, but Jesus savesTraffic jam is an angry mazeThe Devil wants your soul, but Jesus savesChutes and ladders, pick-up sticksCounting cars and counting bricksDriving past the ol' five-and-dimeCan't get nothin' for a nickel since a long, long timeI won't let you downNothing in the closetNothing underneath your bedJust the monsters in your headNo rope to hang the deadNo line to save the drowning manJust the monsters in your headLove won't let you goLove won't let you go

The Holy Trinity is a sanctuary of perfect love where there is never any fear, discord, or sorrow. It is from this sanctuary that the the Holy Spirit is sent as the Paraclete—the one who comes alongside to help us.

John the Evangelist originally concluded his Gospel with chapter twenty. But sometime later, perhaps to affirm the leadership of Peter and to dispel a rumor about himself, John wrote and additional chapter -- a chapter that can be described as a lovely coda.

On the first Sunday in Lent the lectionary takes us to the wilderness temptation of Christ. As Jesus prayed and fasted forty days in preparation to launch his ministry—a ministry that would announce and enact the arrival of the kingdom of God— he was beset with three satanic temptations. The first two temptations involved misuse of miraculous powers. But it was the final temptation that was the most insidious of all: the temptation to receive political dominion over the kingdoms of the world in exchange for bowing down to the devil. The third temptation deserves special attention, not only because it was the most sinister, but because it is the temptation that has beguiled and beleaguered the church for seventeen centuries.

Jesus knows that all forms of spirituality built on legalistic, rule-based religion focused on behavior modification is a dead-end road. It cannot produce life. Inward transformation, a change of the heart and the formation of character, becomes the foundation for real life in the kingdom of God. Jesus warns us of the judgment that is to come if we allow anger to become angry words that seek to hurt and destroy. It is ok to get angry, but there is a massive difference between being a person who feels angry and being an angry person. One is Christlike and one is not. If we are to be made new, renewed in the likeness of God, we have to deal with our anger issues. To do so we need to answer at least three questions: How do I respond to the anger I feel? How do I resolve the anger that seems to linger? What about righteous anger?

When Isaiah penned his “Rivers In the Desert” poem, Judah was in a bad way—internally Judah was corrupt and externally it was under threat of foreign invasion. But the poet of audacious hope does not despair; instead he proclaims that God will come, and in that day it will be said, “Here is your God!”

Paul says that Christ has abolished death and brought immortality to light, and he says this is the gospel. And it is! But it’s not the gospel we’re accustomed to hearing. Over time the gospel has been reduced to be almost exclusively about forgiveness. Of course forgiveness is a beautiful component of the gospel, but that’s not all there is. The gospel in its fullest and most grand presentation is about the abolition of death.