It’s Good to Hear Your Voice | Episode 41

What do severe thunderstorms, earth-swallowing floods, decimated forests, and teeth-shattering earthquakes have in common? They all evoke the voice of God. Feel a little frightened? No need—God uses that voice to give strength and peace to his people.    ...

Images Are Closer Than They Appear

When I describe setting up a telescope on a mountain in Colorado, people often respond with something between a joke and perplexity, since the altitude of the mountain will diminish the distance to my astronomical target so little as not to be measurable: 1 or 2 miles...

So Heavenly Minded | Episode 40

Barry talks about why it is important to consider the ramifications of a choice before one needs to make it. He covers some fundamental aspects of ethics, reviews what ethics can’t do, and explains why on earth he is talking about what most people often ignore.  ...

Control Freaks | Episode 39

Why is it that sometimes we bring about the very thing we are trying to avoid? Barry provides some all-too-true examples and encourages us to be the kind of people that keep the faith, sacrifice our own will, and love our enemies instead of clinging to the delusion...

Of Our Own Tipping

This part is fog: I am 12 or 13. The youth group at my church is holding a Valentine’s Day Banquet. I am attired in my best suit for the “formal” affair, and somehow I have a date I do not know and will not remember. We have collected our salads and are about to sit...

Handwavium Won’t Work

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who notwithstanding. The 10-year-old version of me that read something of A Wrinkle in Time only passed one portion down to my adult self: where Whatsit and Who explain how an ant could...

Modus Vivendi | Episode 38

Sometimes we can be dualistic in our thinking—especially when it comes to us and our competitor/adversary. However, Barry reminds us that there are often three options: we win, they win, and modus vivendi.     Scriptures: James 4:11-12, 5:7-10; 1 Peter...

Parts Per Million | Episode 37

Barry talks through Psalm 28 and leads us to the time-worn and yet sometimes surprising message that we are separated from those who face judgment only by the grace of God, without anything to earn it on our part. And then what naturally follows: If we can receive...

Walking with Our Comforter

Country music songwriters, politicians, and marketers know the power of nostalgia. And better times past can be more than rose-tinged memories. Childhood should be safer with fewer cares than adulthood. So songs, campaigns, and ads invite us back to better times. When...

Knowing Our Author

Sunshine illuminates blue skies, inviting bright demeanors, optimistic outlooks, an end to sorrow. Yet in the 19th Psalm the heat of sunshine stands in for the general revelation of God’s judgment, from which everyone wishes to hide. Rain falls from dreary or hostile...