How do we know and trust God at all?
The hosts wrestle with the advice's implications: if we drop expectations of method, how do we know we are encountering God at all rather than just hoping we trust him; one host says he simply wants to know it is God 'pushing the button.' They offer the toaster analogy, trust grows from dependable interaction, not from treating God as a genie in a magic lamp, and the trusted-mediator idea: we learn to trust God the way the disciples did, through Jesus and through people who already know him, plus Scripture and the witness of God's work in other people's lives. The conversation closes on the Sermon on the Mount: we do not obey its radical calls on money and forgiveness because we misunderstand them, but because we do not truly believe they are the best program, which is a failure of trust.
More on Community
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Do accountability partners actually work?
- Do accountability partners actually do anything?
Mike raises his accountability-partners question: the standard dude-circle advice to get a buddy to hold you accountable for Bible reading, porn, church attendance, and drinking.
From No. 598 · Emphasis | Accountability, Worship and Praying with Strangers
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Dear LFTP 2: the neighbors' piling newspapers
- Dear LFTP: at what point can we pick up our out-of-town neighbors' piling newspapers and recycle them?
Mike reads the second letter: new neighbors have been out of town for weeks and their newspapers are piling up — at what point may the writer recycle them?
From No. 595 · Trust But Verify
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Local pastors, mutual refinement, and the 'pods' joke
- What word comes after "community"?
The best pastor for you is the person in your life who can look you in the eyeballs; walk into every room expecting the other person might refine you — that only works locally.
From No. 590 · Theodore Franco
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Dear LFTP: Martha, John, and Jerry
- How should a woman in love with her ex's brother tell friends, family, and his parents?
A host reads the first Dear LFTP letter: Martha dated John for two years, then he kept living with her six months after the breakup; John is an emotionally and verbally abusive alcoholic who burned every bridge.
From No. 584 · When Vanek Was Here | Cambodia Testimony, Church Mission, Josiah Queen