Kindled Podcast | Truth and Grace, Boldly

What do we do when our faith is shaken? When everything we thought we believed comes into question?  Today on the podcast, Robin Dance is sharing her story of how God used her questions to bring her back to himself.  Sponsor: Lies Moms Believe, Rebekah Hargraves  

Is self-love really loving?  It's a question worth asking. And my guest Brooke Tabor and I go there in today's episode.  Our cultural moment is nothing short of consumed with this concept of loving yourself better. Self-love is the best love. Love yourself first to love others. And while we are sure the intention behind the phrase often means well, for Christians, it profoundly misses the mark of the kind of love scripture both promises us AND calls us to exhibit.  Join us as we discuss!  Shownotes at kindledpodcast.com Sponsor: H. Williams Creative | www.hwilliamscreative.com 

Today is a candid conversation of reflections on hope with author Laura Smith. We talk about what God is doing with COVID-19. On a micro level in our lives but also on a global scale. How He is continuing to work out His great rescue plan for humanity.  We discuss the goodness of God, how we are like the grumbling Israelites being brought  into the promise land through way of the wilderness, and how God is turning evil for good before our eyes in spite of the brokenness we see.  SPONSOR: Prepdish - Start your free 14-day trial today! Shownotes at kindledpodcast.com

Today I'm airing the second part of my conversation with Marcia Montenegro. We're diving headfirst into the New Age and tackling some big topics like naturopathy, mindfulness, the enneagram.  Marcia explains the origins of these ideas, concepts and the enneagram itself, which may surprise you. To be fair, I have long loved the enneagram and how it felt like it explained me so accurately, helped me understand more about myself and others, but as I've learned more about its origins, I've taken a more critical approach to it. But Marcia's biggest beef isn't that you identify as a "three" or an "achiever" but that the enneagram is teaching people to value experience over truth, a foundational teaching of the new age. While I think there's plenty of room for believers to disagree on whether the enneagram can be "redeemed" (which tends to be the point of argumentation), it's important for us to take a look at the origins of what we engage with so we can rightly understand how we interact with them today.  Show notes at kindledpodcast.com

Today I'm talking with Brenna Burrows, a wife and mom of two girls who lives in Quingdao, a city in the the Shandong province in China.  Brenna and her family have lived in China for 18 months and just experienced the spread of COVID-19. While they are not in  Wuhan in Hubei province, where the main outbreak was, it has still greatly impacted their lives.  Brenna and her family have been through the extreme measures to prevent spread many of us are just now beginning to experience and she's sharing some of what that's looked like for their family. She also shares how keeping her eyes on Jesus and prayer has helped her through this fearful and uncertain time.  Sponsor: Prepdish Shownotes: KindledPodcast.com

Today, you get to hear the testimony of Marcia Montenegro. Marcia is a former professional astrologer who was involved in seeking out the supernatural, as well as being involved in paranormal New Age practices. She was compelled by the intense love of Jesus to give up occult practices and turn to him as her Lord and Savior. Because of her background, she understands the appeal and dangers of the the New Age and now lectures on these topics around the country.  Show notes at www.KindledPodcast.com

The cultural moment we are in tells us grace and truth do not exist together. The narrative looks something like - grace means wholesale acceptance of all that someone chooses to do and the rejection of absolute truth - ie: they can do NO wrong. On the flip side, if you have the truth, you must preach it and take no prisoners. But an examination of scripture and God's heart for his children shows that is not how we are to understand these two. They are inextricably linked and meant to be applied together, not separately, in the life of believers.  Sarah and I discuss how a right understanding of grace and truth frees us to engage honestly and lovingly, even - and perhaps especially - in challenging relationships.  Sponsor: Prepdish Shownotes at www.Kindledpodcast.com

It's a wild time to be alive. We have access to more ideas, more content, more leaders, more voices, more information than anyone in history has ever had access to. And that means that we’re going to have to have wisdom to know what to listen to, which direction to go, what to take in, what to leave behind, how to discern what is really influencing us when we post, how to just clarify our own motives and how to be led by the Holy Spirit and not just be swept along by this torrent of information.  That means we need to have discernment. But discernment is more than simply avoiding bad things; discernment actually frees you to navigate the world with confidence and joy by teaching you how to recognize and choose good things. When you learn discernment and develop a taste for all that’s good, you will encounter God in remarkable new ways. Join me and Hannah for this fascinating conversation. 

Approval is something we all long for. We long to be found as enough, as acceptable, as good. In fact, it's not whether we will seek approval or not but where we will seek it. When we look for it in the wrong place, the approval we find will never satiate our desire for acceptance. But when we realize nd truly believe that our drive to find approval is meant to be met and satisfied in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, our endless search for the approval of man can end. We can see that Jesus fulfills every desire we have for approval by doing what we were powerless to do.  Donna and I talk through some of the ways we wrongly seek approval and how we see in scripture that God is the only One who can offer sound and true approval of us.  Shownotes at www.KindledPodcast.com

As Christians, we know friendship matters. Go to any Christian book store and you’ll find myriads of books on the importance of community. But while most people are convinced of their need for Christian friendships, they are often confused about the problems and disappointment they experience. What’s responsible for this confusion? For too many people, their friendships are very worldly. Following Jesus may have changed the activities of friendship, but the DNA of how and why they practice friendship remains untouched. These relationships may look good, but underneath, they’re merely friend-ish. In this conversation Kelly and I discuss what true biblical friendship really looks like and how we can be better friends to one another.  Shownotes: www.KindledPodcast.com Sponsor: H. Williams Creative