My Pencil Is Not My Neighbor | Episode 121

Barry heads to some uncomfortable scriptures to begin a conversation about community. Just when we think scripture limits itself, we realize the limit is the hardness of our hearts. Thank goodness (literally) God created community to soften those hearts by providing a...

For Ordinary Believers in Every Circumstance

On a plain, Jesus gives the command: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…. and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.” Between a rock and hard place, we whittle at...

The Value of Decisions: Part 2 | Episode 120

Barry follows up on the conversation with Rachael Denhollander and Tiffany Thigpen, asking why we sometimes find ourselves doing the opposite of our own chosen values? Two examples, racism and sexual abuse, provide the opportunity to look at this moral failure more...

The Value of Decisions: Part 1 | Episode 119

Barry interviews Rachael Denhollander and Tiffany Thigpen about the recent case in Kentucky and the amicus brief submitted by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Executive Committee of the SBC, and Lifeway. Hearing the witness of these women and the information...

A New Day, a New Opportunity to Love People

The man seated opposite me is probably a decade my senior. Lean and muscular to excess, he is snacking on a health bar and appears oblivious to my existence, which is fine with me. I am not there to see him. I am there because I want to join my grandchildren for...

The Earth Is His

A preschooler, I worry wide-eyed that the Rio Grande’s current will sweep me away with the car in which my parents have placed me. The water and flow rise with my terror, but the adults manage to forge the river safely back into Texas after our day of ministry in...

For Some Reason | Episode 118

Barry highlights the limitations and importance of intellect, calling believers to acknowledge and baptize all parts of the Christian soul: volition, emotion, and reason. Scripture: 1 Cor 15:12-20; Rom 8: 29-35, 12:1-2; Psalm 65:11  

The Stalking Choir | Episode 117

Barry covers Psalm 66, choosing an Old Testament account in Israel’s history to highlight the fact that God is good, powerful, and loves us. God uses difficult times to make us holy and for the world to see his power in our transformation. Someone may want to create...

Birds Rushed In

According to this CBS News story (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bald-eagle-birds-migration-covid-lockdown/), the Covid-driven human hibernation of 2020’s spring likely prompted an ornithological flourishing: a significant increase in the presence of 80% of observed...

The Only Appropriate Response Is Humility

As I drive one morning to a preaching engagement, eastern sunlight gilds a foggy mist rising from the lawn on my left. Similar vapor ascends from a creek on the right. It is not fog, not a cloud: it gathers only above bodies of water or dew-laden lawns, returning to...