43 conversations
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Maintaining hope for people who won't choose Jesus
- How do you maintain hope for someone who keeps rejecting Jesus when God won't override their free will?
The episode's centerpiece: Mike's pre-show question about how to maintain hope for people who reject Christ when God won't override their free will.
From No. 579 · Wanted: Paul and Hope | Paul’s Persecution of Christians and Radical Redemption
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Dear LFTP: is there any hope for our joyless mid-fifties marriage?
- Is there any hope for our marriage — we're past our mid-fifties, we love each other, but we live two separate lives?
Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter from a couple edging past their mid-fifties: three kids and three grandkids later, they still love each other but live two separate lives, rarely touch, and wonder if this is the rest of their lives.
From No. 579 · Wanted: Paul and Hope | Paul’s Persecution of Christians and Radical Redemption
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Declining faith and deaths of despair study
- Is declining faith fueling a rise in deaths of despair?
A host reads a Daily Mail article on a Wellesley College study linking rising 'deaths of despair' (suicide, alcohol and opioid abuse) among middle-aged white Americans to declining faith and church attendance.
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The balance question: naming harsh realities vs. keeping hope
- How do you find the balance between calling harsh realities harsh and keeping optimism and hope?
A host admits it has been a week and raises the episode's core hard question: social media is full of sympathy posts about how rough the COVID era has been, and Christians also struggle with whether to paint a shiny picture or a dreary one.
From No. 443 · Cry Me A River…Then Build A Bridge
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Revelation misconceptions, part 2: the rapture and the wrong reaction
- Is COVID-19 part of biblical prophecy — are we living in the end times?
The hosts cover the final two misconceptions. Fourth: the rapture as escape — they argue God's people are rarely spared worldly pain, citing martyrs under God's throne who are told to wait.
From No. 405 · Reading Revelation Wrong
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When you've been sinned against; can a Christian live a depressed life?
- Is it possible to live a depressed life if you know Jesus is your Savior?
- Can you articulate the reason for your hope? (1 Peter 3:15, raised via chat)
Flipping the question, the hosts ask what to do when someone else's sin lands on you: you can either live joyfully in the garbage or be swallowed by it.
From No. 78 · November 28 2011
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Takeaways: gratitude, Jesus tourism, and long-term hope
- What from the Peru trip do you want to take with you or remember?
Ethan says he wants to carry home gratitude for what Americans take for granted. Ben reflects on his Ethiopia trip and the value of short-term missions as a shock out of 'Jesus tourism' into sympathy for people whose circumstances limit their choices.
From No. 542 · The Peruvian Gambling Ring
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Setting your mind, grumbling vs wonder, optimism vs pessimism
The hosts work through the mind-framing idea: one compares preparing a sermon to letting a text "cook" while you stare out the window, another urges starting the day on the lookout for God moving.
From No. 587 · Coffee After Sunday
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Ask the Pastor: why Ezekiel eats the scroll
Cody McCormick's complaint-line question: why does Ezekiel snack on scrolls in Ezekiel 3? Ben reads Ezekiel 2–3 at length.
From No. 568 · Like Jesus
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The ex-Satanist's testimony and its ripples
- Could a neutral intro-to-the-Bible class at the library reach skeptics?
The hosts read and discuss a Christian Post article about ex-Satanist Brian Cole, who spent 33 years in the occult after childhood abuse, then converted after finding Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ in his jail cell and is now a pastor.
From No. 448 · November 8 2021
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Anxiety needs a boundary: hope versus worry
Ben argues anxiety needs a boundary: being concerned about a lost child in a store or a lion running at you is reasonable, but fretting six weeks out about the first day of school is worry unbound.
From No. 539 · Birdcage
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The lion story and the rubber-meets-road
Dan tells of his daughter facing what she thought was a charging lion and calmly deciding she was fine either way, it turned out the lion was after a hyena behind her.
From No. 539 · Birdcage
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Provision stories: carloads of beef and grandpa's church
Dan recalls his young-family years of not knowing where the next meal came from, when people would pull up with a carload of beef more than once, and choosing to watch God show off.
From No. 539 · Birdcage
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Hope, not 'you're going to hell'
A host rebukes the reflex of typing 'you're going to hell' at people like Maxwell: it makes the church look like a people without hope, as if God can do nothing with fallen humanity.
From No. 427 · Wasting Time & Leaving Christianity
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Hope, facing God, and Jonah's despair
The hosts wrestle with why some people survive the same pain others do not, landing on hope -- 'there's always tomorrow' -- and a reluctance to face God after rejecting the gift of life.
From No. 35 · Suicide
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Hope and persistence: Ben's work story
Ben connects the Skyway lesson to hope and perseverance: he created his current role at his company four years ago, spent three years with the ideas falling on deaf ears, and only in the last few weeks saw the tide turn without changing his approach.
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Someone's best hope: transformation over behavior modification
Gordon shares Manny Scott's maxim "every day you are someone's best hope" as his operating principle for educators.
From No. 473 · Do Something With Your Life, Gordon
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Ex-satanist Brian Cole's testimony
A host reads a Christian Post piece about Brian Cole, who spent 33 years in satanism and the occult after childhood abuse and church hurt, and found faith in 2009 when Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ appeared on his jail-cell floor.
From No. 451 · Mississippi Don’t Push
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Hope, not fear: John's pastoral intent and God's control
A host shares how, as a young man, every red moon made him fear the end because he misunderstood grace and pictured God as angry.
From No. 405 · Reading Revelation Wrong
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Songwriting: what 'I'm Alive' is about, and the music industry
- What was behind the band's song 'I'm Alive'?
Asked what was behind the 'I'm Alive' tune, the band explains the song was written with producers over a good day of work, aimed at people going through drugs, cancer, or hard times, with a 'will rise forever' theme.
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'The Memory of You': story and performance
Nathan introduces an original song co-written with his sister Ali, 'The Memory of You', slated for Casting Shadows.
From No. 200 · Silversyde
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Grief, loss, and hope after the song
A host is audibly moved to tears and thanks the band, sharing that he lost his mother to suicide about four years earlier and calling the song lyrically incredible.
From No. 200 · Silversyde
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'Rescue Me': dedication to Judy Giuliano
Nathan dedicates the next song to everyone who has lost someone close, and to the band's late mother, Judy Giuliano, to whom the album is also dedicated.
From No. 200 · Silversyde
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Song intro: 'We'll Meet Again' and grandmother Sandra
John Paul Birch introduces 'We'll Meet Again,' his only released single (on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, with a YouTube music video), written start-to-finish before his conversion about hoping to meet loved ones again in this life or the next.
From No. 478 · John Paul Burtch